Wilhelm Kube. Why war hero elena mazanik lived in fear until the end of her life
After the capture of Belarus by Nazi troops, a severe occupation regime... About 8 million civilians and about 900 thousand Soviet prisoners of war were under the rule of the Nazis. Death squads immediately began mass extermination of Jews, communists, Soviet activists and anyone who did not agree with the occupation. On the territory of Belarus, 260 death camps and more than 200 Jewish ghettos were created. In addition, a mass export of young Belarusians to forced labor in Germany began. Wilhelm Cuba was appointed head of the occupation administration shortly after the outbreak of the war.
General commissioner
Wilhelm Kube was born in 1887 in Glogau, Silesia. After graduating from the University of Berlin with a degree in history and law, he took up literature and politics. Cuba was noted on the fronts of the First World War, edited conservative newspapers and took part in the work of right-wing parties. Already an experienced politician, in 1927 he joined the NSDAP and soon became a Gauleiter of Ostmark, and then Kurmark.
In the future, Cuba's career went up rapidly. He was elected to the Reichstag and the Landtag of Prussia and became the leader of the Nazi faction. After the Nazis came to power in Germany, he was appointed Chief President of Brandenburg, Prussian State Councilor and Chief President of the Posen Border Mark - West Prussia. Also in 1933, he joined the SS and received the rank of Oberführer (middle rank between colonel and major general - RT).
However, in 1936 Cuba became involved in a number of scandals. So, allegedly for non-observance of the order, he sentenced several military men to be shot at once without trial or investigation. In addition, Cuba spread rumors about the Jewish origin of the mother-in-law of the chief of staff of the Deputy Fuhrer Martin Bormann, which were later not confirmed. Cuba was also convicted of corruption and economic abuse. After that, he had to leave the ranks of the SS and resign from administrative positions.
“Cuba had a complex, unbalanced and adventurous personality. This left a certain imprint on his activities, "historian and writer Alexander Kolpakidi said in an interview with RT.
Nevertheless, in 1938, Cuba was allowed to be elected to the Reichstag and engage in parliamentary activities. Adolf Hitler personally selected positions for him that would be honorable enough for a person who was formally a Gauleiter. After the attack on the Soviet Union, the Fuhrer decided to appoint Cuba the general commissar of the general district of Beloruthenia (mainly occupying the territory of modern Belarus .-- RT), belonging to the Reichskommissariat "Ostland" and subordinate to the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories.
In the new position, the interests of Cuba came into conflict with the interests of the military and the SS, who wanted to have their own zones of control in Belarus. Competing with them, he showed cynical pragmatism - he sought to ensure that able-bodied Jews were sent to hard labor instead of execution, and also tried to inflame Russophobic nationalist sentiments on the territory of Belarus.
“In recent decades, many historians and publicists have tried to humanize Cuba. At the same time, they rely mainly on the memories of his wife - a priori biased person. As a result, from publication to publication, for example, the thesis that Cuba allegedly sabotaged the extermination of Jews is wandering. In reality, he did not try to save them at all. Cuba was concerned only with the fate of German Jews, participants in the First World War, whom the German leadership expelled to the ghettos of Poland and Belarus. The fate of the rest of the representatives of this people worried him only in one aspect: the Commissioner General considered it senseless to shoot able-bodied Jews who could benefit the Reich, "Sergei Belov, the scientific secretary of the Victory Museum, explained in an interview with RT.
- Soviet partisans in Belarus, 1943
- Wikimedia commons
According to the expert, in May - July 1942 alone, with the active participation of the General Commissioner, 55 thousand Jews were exterminated. Cuba proudly reported to Berlin that the entire Minsk region without any damage to the workforce.
During the time that he was in power, as a result of executions, punitive operations, hunger and disease, millions of local residents died. Therefore, the Soviet leadership included Cuba on the list of Nazi functionaries to be liquidated. At the same time, circumstances developed in such a way that the role of the executor of the "order" went to an ordinary Belarusian girl Elena Mazanik.
Heroine of the people
Mazanik, who was to enter into a confrontation with the car of the Nazi special services in occupied Belarus, was born on April 4, 1914 in the village of Poddegtyarnaya not far from Minsk in poor peasant family... Having lost her father early, as a child she was forced to do hard housework with relatives for free, literally for a piece of bread. Because of this, Elena Mazanik suffered from joint diseases throughout the rest of her life.
At school, she managed to finish only six classes and even upon reaching adulthood, she could not immediately count on a prestigious job. Therefore, I got a job in the dining room of the Council of People's Commissars of the BSSR: according to one version, as a waitress, according to the other, as a cleaner. Having met the NKVD driver Boleslav Tarletsky, Mazanik soon married him. Later, Elena worked in the rest house of the Council of People's Commissars and in the dining room of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus. In 1941, Tarletsky participated in the evacuation of the NKVD administration and, together with his colleagues, left Minsk. Elena could not leave.
- Before the execution of members of the Komsomol underground in Minsk
- RIA News
When Belarus was occupied, the young woman was first hired as a cleaner in one of the German military institutions, and then transferred as a waitress to a factory kitchen and to an officer's casino. In the summer of 1943, Elena was noticed by the family of Wilhelm Kube, and she became a housekeeper in a mansion that was occupied by the General Commissioner. In connection with directives from the Kremlin, Mazanik soon came to the attention of Soviet partisans and intelligence officers.
“Cuba was one of the ten most influential German managers in the occupied territories and was therefore an important target for Soviet intelligence officers and saboteurs,” Kolpakidi said.
According to Belov, the Soviet special services approached the issue of organizing the liquidation of Cuba extremely thoroughly.
“Many groups of partisans and underground fighters, acting independently of each other, took part in the“ hunt ”for the general commissar at the same time,” the expert said.
On July 22, 1943, underground workers attempted an assassination attempt in Cuba, during which about 70 Nazi soldiers were killed by a bomb explosion in a theater, but the Commissioner General himself was not at the event that day. Soon the "Gauleiter hunters" came to Elena Mazanik. According to historians, representatives of several detachments working through the NKVD and the GRU contacted her almost simultaneously.
- Elena Mazanik during the Great Patriotic War
- Youtube
Elena made contact, but put forward a number of conditions. She was ready to risk her life only after a conversation with the leader of the corresponding detachment and her sister Valentina Shutskaya's departure from the city. Initially, the scout Nadezhda Troyan was involved in preparing Mazanik for the assassination attempt in Cuba. However, Maria Osipova finally persuaded her to participate in the action, who came to Elena through her sister. Valentina personally met with the partisan commander Nikolai Fedorov, after which Elena agreed to eliminate the general commissar.
At the stage of preparation, the option of poisoning Cuba was discussed, but Elena rejected it as unreliable. In the end, we decided to stop at an explosive device. On September 20, Maria gave Elena a mine, as well as poison - in case she was exposed.
The next day, Elena launched a clockwork on an explosive device (presumably with a chemical reagent) and wrapped the mine in an embroidered scarf. At the entrance, the security did not scrutinize the things of the housekeeper of the Commissioner General, and after learning that the scarf was intended as a gift to his wife Cuba, she did not touch it at all. After hiding the mine under her dress, Elena entered the Gauleiter's bedroom and secured an explosive device under the mattress. Then she asked to leave the mansion, citing a severe toothache. Immediately after that, she, along with her sister and Osipova, left Minsk.
On the night of September 22, an explosion thundered in the bedroom of the Commissioner General, as a result of which Cuba was killed. And on October 12, Mazanik, along with other participants in the execution of the Nazi official, was taken by plane to the rear. The women were immediately interrogated personally by the People's Commissar of State Security Vsevolod Merkulov and the head of the GRU Fyodor Kuznetsov. On October 29, 1943 Elena Mazanik, Maria Osipova and Nadezhda Troyan were awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union.
War after war
Once in the rear, Elena Mazanik learned that Boleslav Tarletsky had divorced her. She never married again, taking up a career and social activities... Graduated from the Higher Republican Party School under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus and pedagogical institute, Elena became the deputy director of the Fundamental Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR and an honored worker of culture. People often turned to her for help on a variety of issues - and she used her title of Hero to help those who found themselves in difficult life situations. Elena Mazanik died on April 7, 1996.
- Elena Mazanik, 1964
- RIA News
At the same time, during the years of perestroika and after the collapse of the USSR, an information campaign was launched against Elena Mazanik, which continued after her death. The focus of the press, in particular, turned out to be her divorce - Elena was accused of affection for Cuba, whom she allegedly "betrayed". In addition, a version appeared that Mazanik and her command actually liquidated Cuba on a tip from the Gestapo, with whom the Commissioner General allegedly had a conflict. It was also widely believed that the murder of Cuba led to massive repression on the part of the Nazis and, as a result, unjustified casualties among the civilian population. However, historians fundamentally disagree with this.
“After the death of Cuba, 300 prisoners in the Minsk prison were actually executed. But to think that in a different situation the Nazis would have pitied these people would be the height of naivety. The Nazis would have destroyed the prisoners in any case, ”noted historian and writer Igor Pykhalov.
Sergei Belov agrees with him. According to him, the intensification of terror by the occupiers after the death of Cuba cannot be explained solely by the personality of his successor.
“It must be remembered that Smolensk was liberated just a day before the liquidation of Cuba. The German command was placed in fundamentally new conditions for it. Red Army . The entire line of the German front from the upper Dnieper to the Black Sea shuddered under the blows of the advancing Soviet army... The Wehrmacht was faced with the task of retaining control over the territory of Belarus. In these conditions, the intensification of repression by the invaders was an expected step. Even if Cuba remained alive, it would not change anything, ”he said.
According to Alexander Kolpakidi, the liquidation operation was planned and implemented brilliantly.
“It was necessary to show that we can eliminate the Nazi leaders, and this was shown. This inspired people. As for the ongoing conversations today, journalists often want to create a sensation. Yes, Cuba had a conflict, but not with the Gestapo, but with the SS. You should not draw far-reaching conclusions from the slovenliness of his protection. Cuba was an influential person. However, firstly, a number of figures equivalent to him were eliminated in the occupied territories, and secondly, if the SS leadership really wanted to remove him, then his influence was still not so great that he would not be simply recalled to Berlin ", - summed up the expert.
Shpakovsky Vyacheslav 05/11/2014 at 10:00
The feat of the Minsk partisans-Sudoplatovites, who destroyed the Gauleiter of Belarus in Cuba during the war years, is well known. However, in this story, everything is still not clear and logical. And some facts allow us to conclude that this action was probably a joint operation of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD and the Gestapo, in which the sides used each other "in the dark."
So, it is known that the liquidation of Cuba was the result of the patriotic actions of "ordinary Soviet workers who were forced by the war to prepare a terrorist attack." Yes, indeed, everything seems to be the way it was, and no one argues with that. However, in jurisprudence there is an important rule: "Look who benefits!" and if you follow it, then we will have much more questions than we will get answers to them.
Let's start with what is strictly documented, that is, it is supported not by eyewitness accounts, but by completely official papers.
It is clear that Cuba would not have made a career for himself in the Nazi party if he had not been a "one hundred percent Nazi" and a loyal follower of Adolf Hitler. However, it is known that party associates reproached the Cuba Partyigenosse for his addiction to Jewish composers Offenbach and Mendelssohn. Cuba was accused of not making a difference between Germans and Jews (especially participants in the First World War), and called a police officer who shot a Jew in front of everyone as a "pig." At the same time, Cuba did not protest against sending disabled Jews to the gas chambers and did not hesitate to profit from the appropriation of Jewish property. Wilhelm Kube became the General Commissioner of Belarus on July 17, 1941, and his arrival was accompanied by the execution of 2,278 prisoners of the Minsk ghetto.
Most sources say that for the entire period of the occupation in this territory, from 74 to 82 percent of the Jewish population of Belarus was destroyed. But the executions and executions were not led by him, but by the chief of the SS of Belarus, Kurt von Gotteberg. He was openly indignant at the pogroms in the ghetto in Cuba, and at the same time actively cooperated with Belarusian nationalist organizations, allowed them to use their national symbols (!), And in the summer of 1942 - the creation of a Belarusian self-defense corps, which was not possible solely because of the position of the SS leadership.
In 1934, Wilhelm Kube declared that "the carriers of the plague must be exterminated," but, having become a Gauleiter, for some reason he protested and did not allow to deal with the German Jews deported to Minsk, among whom there were many participants in the First World War. Then Cuba replaced its SS guards with police officers and began to sabotage orders to eliminate Jewish compatriots. Cuba's double standards caused Heinrich Himmler's sharp discontent, so that in the end, Alfred Rosenberg had to send even a special envoy, Alfred Meyer, to Minsk to "seriously warn Cuba."
The widow of the murdered man, Anita later recalled that Kube sometimes even cried, and at the same time repeated: "I am not a murderer, I am not a murderer." Of course, you can not believe these words of her, but the fact that Cuba was clearly behaving differently than a "note-taking Nazi" should have behaved is undoubtedly! Moreover, it is known that all this was immediately reported to Hitler.
Of course, Cuba should not be considered a kind of defender of the Belarusian people before the SS, and it’s hard to believe in his repentance. But it is obvious that he understood the service to the Fuhrer and Germany in a completely different way from other fascist bosses, and this was, in their opinion, a very serious offense, which should have been followed by appropriate punishment.
As for the plans Soviet command on the liquidation of Cuba, then the order to kill him from Moscow was simultaneously received by 12 special groups operating in the Minsk region, which literally began hunting him. The first attempt was the explosion on June 22, 1943 in the Minsk theater, where 70 were killed and 110 were wounded. German soldiers and officers, but Cuba was not affected.
Upon learning that the Gauleiter was a fan of hunting, the partisans ambushed him in the forest and killed about 50 "hunters", but Cuba was not among them.
Then the partisans managed to find out that on September 6, 1943, a banquet would be held in the officers' mess on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Hitler's coming to power. The partisans managed to mine the hall where 36 high-ranking Wehrmacht officers died as a result of the explosion, but Cuba was lucky to survive this time too, which is why he was even nicknamed "the lucky one."
Of course, he could not help but understand that he was being hunted, and that if he wanted to stay alive, he simply needed to be extremely vigilant. However, at the same time, he admitted that Elena Mazanik worked in his house as almost the senior maid, and besides, she alone was allowed to live outside his house. It seems that no sane person who cares about his own safety would allow this. However, Cuba and his wife for some reason turned a blind eye to all this. Were they so sure of her? Or had the security service assured them of her absolute loyalty ?!
The story of the girl's employment with him is also very mysterious. In the protocol of the interrogation of Mazanik in the NKVD, her story is given that, while she was sitting on the banks of the river, a German officer approached her and offered to work as a cleaner in a German military unit, and then she was taken to Cuba. Just like that, he came up, and just like she was taken into the house of the Gauleiter himself! But where the Gestapo was looking at that time is completely incomprehensible.
When Maria Osipova carried Mazanik a mine in a basket of lingonberries, the police patrolled her several times, but found nothing. Then Elena carried the mine in her purse to the house of Cuba, and she was again stopped. Moreover, this time it was no longer police, but an SS officer, but he again let the girl pass without looking at her handbag: amazing bungling, especially on the part of an SS man who is in a hostile country amid constant sabotage and partisans who are ready to kill any minute.
Interestingly, after the murder of Cuba, when its performers were behind the front line in Moscow, they could not figure out for a long time who killed him. Only Elena Mazanik clearly told how it all happened, however, there are inaccuracies in her message. So, for example, at first she said that there was no security on the floors. But then she began to claim that there was a guard, and she outwitted her! Well, and Maria Osipova, on the contrary, tried to ascribe all the merits to herself, that, they say, Mazanik "only laid a mine." As a result, in the NKVD, the issue with the girls was resolved for so long that Stalin himself had to intervene in it, who personally gave the order to give the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to all three, although the third girl, Nadezhda Troyan, took part in the operation only at the very beginning!
The investigation carried out by the Germans established that the mine was of English production and was laid on the springs of the mattress. In all domestic sources, this mine is called a sentry. But ... all English time mines are known, and they all ticked quite loudly. It is essentially a small alarm clock attached to an explosive charge. But, if she ticked, Kube should have heard her, because he was lying on her! There is even a clock by which Mazanik set the time of the explosion on the mine. Maria Osipova also reported about the "ticking" mechanism. And yes, indeed, even a little ladies' clock was ticking at that time. But how then could this even be? As a result, what kind of mine it was, today no one can say!
No less surprising was the flight of the girls after completing the assignment. They left Minsk in a truck on the same night, and they were stopped several times by the military police (after all, the curfew was in force!), But every time, after checking the documents, they let them go! And when they began to take Mazanik's relatives to go to the partisan detachment, they demanded to take out not only them, but all the belongings that did not even fit on one cart, and they had to hire a second one. However, despite such troublesome gatherings, everyone safely reached the partisans, from where the girls were then taken to the mainland. Moreover, it is interesting that the Gestapo very quickly unwound the whole chain of the conspiracy and arrested everyone who remained in Minsk, but despite all their efforts ... it was too late!
The fate of the woman who destroyed the Gauleiter of Belarus turned out to be tragic
September 22, 1943 Soviet intelligence officer risking own life, destroyed the General Commissioner of Belarus, Gauleiter Wilhelm Kube. In those years, both the partisans and the Germans knew Elena Mazanik under a different name - Galina... She went on a mission with explosives, which she hid under her clothes - for the Gauleiter, and poison - for herself, in case the operation failed.
King without a kingdom
The head of the occupation administration of the General District of Belarus, Wilhelm Kube, was not liked in the ruling elite of the Reich, to put it mildly. Perhaps that is why he was practically exiled to the East. Although the position was leading, the Gauleiter got the too unstable region. The place promised to be profitable, but, according to forecasts, only in a couple of years, when the "victorious march" of Germany across Eurasia will be brilliantly completed. And until all the centers of resistance were suppressed, a tough hand was required for dirty work, which could then be cut off as unnecessary.
Cuba, which had burst into power, immediately won the hatred of the Belarusians. On the day of his inauguration alone, 2,278 local ghetto prisoners were executed. Cuba was not a stupid person and understood that his position was more than nominal. The same Himmler, who hated Cuba, had much more power in Belarus, as the Germans called Belarus, than the Gauleiter. Yes, the Gauleiter became the full-fledged owner of the territories entrusted to him. But - later, when the Eastern campaign ends. In the meantime, Cuba had only to gnash its teeth, watching how pieces of it fell from its future possessions either in favor of Lithuania, then in favor of Ukraine, or even simply in favor of its own.
An adherent of the Divide and Conquer theory, Cuba tried to stimulate Belarusian nationalism in order to build on it a future policy of destroying the Slavic world. But Belarusian nationalism turned out to be weak. Therefore, it was not possible to play on it. Although there were, of course, renegades who enthusiastically embraced the change of power.
Lucky Cuba
They said that Cuba has a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. This angel supposedly keeps him. Cuba has been out of the water all his life. In 1936, he was not punished for the shooting of several soldiers and officers. He simply had to leave the German Christians organization, of which he was one of the activists. A year later, for gossip about the mother-in-law Martin Bormann, and at the same time for corruption and abuse of power he was "just" removed from office, but left all the ranks and deputy positions in the Reichstag.
By the time fate brought together the lucky Cuba, as the Germans called him, and the former canteen worker Elena Mazanik in one house, the Gauleiter had already survived several attacks and sabotage, but survived. The bestial instinct of self-preservation helped him in the Minsk Theater, from where he left in July 1943 literally a couple of minutes before the explosion of a bomb addressed to him. Then about 70 soldiers were killed. In early September of the same year, Cuba was to be blown up at a banquet. But at the last moment he stayed at home and 36 high civilian and military ranks took off. Road ambushes have not borne fruit either. Either there was no car, then there was no Cuba in the car, then a car with a patrol came instead of a car in Cuba.
How they become saboteurs
Elena Mazanik got a job at the Cuba mansion in the early summer of 1943 under the patronage of a friend of Gauleiter's wife Anita... A large, strong, quiet woman. She knew a lot about cleaning, and cooking, and serving. Of course, she knew: after all, before the war, Elena managed to work in the dining room of the Council of People's Commissars of the Byelorussian SSR, then in the rest house of the same Council of People's Commissars, and later in the dining room of the Party Central Committee. And already there the requirements for personnel were on top. Try not to match!
Elena's past played a role in what she had to do. A certain Nikolay Khokhlov, a Soviet intelligence agent (later he fled to the USA), appeared at Elena's apartment and said that if she did not become the executor of the execution in Cuba, then her past work in the NKVD would cease to be a secret for the German owners. If all goes well, she and her sister's family will be evacuated to Soviet rear... That's how Elena became a reluctant saboteur.
Bomb for Gauleiter
By September 1943, Elena had already enjoyed the full confidence of the owners. Always helpful, executive, not looking up - she became Anita's personal servant. Moreover, that one needed special services: the hostess in Once again was pregnant.
On September 21, 1943, Elena Mazanik entered the mansion on Teatralnaya for the last time. She had a bomb in her bag, the mechanism of which had already been cocked. She managed to get into the territory of the house without being searched. But the purse could be inspected, and therefore Elena tied the bomb under her chest, covering it with an apron. For almost a day, the woman wore a device that could explode at any moment. According to Elena herself, she managed to plant the explosives only at 11 pm, 100 minutes before the explosion.
The bomb exploded at 0:40, only Wilhelm was killed. His wife Anita was not hurt and was able to keep the child. However, he died in early age from leukemia.
Feelings of guilt or fear?
After the operation, the scout was sent to the Soviet rear. Subsequently, she was awarded the "Gold Star" of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.
Elena returned to the house of Cuba only after the liberation of Minsk. Ironically, she was given an apartment with windows overlooking the mansion. Doubtful neighborhood. She joined the party, graduated from the Higher Republican Party School, graduated from the Minsk Pedagogical University, in the 50s she worked as deputy director of the Fundamental Library of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR.
Kurt von Gottberg is the Commissioner General who replaced Cuba. Bloody executioner Belarus.
Photo: wikipedia.org
Elena Grigorievna was invited to the "lessons of Glory", she talked about the struggle of the Belarusian people in museums, on television, at meetings with pioneers and young people ... But one day, in 1976, a tourist from the GDR brought her a letter from Anita Cuba. It was said that after that Elena practically stopped all her social life... In the post-war years, she was so afraid that one of the surviving sons of Cuba would take revenge on her. Or someone from the relatives of those three and a half hundred people whom the Germans shot as punishment for the death of a Gauleiter.
Elena refused to pick up and read the letters. She moved from apartment to apartment so that she would not be found. Fear turned into paranoia that she would be found and poisoned. By old age, Elena was able to trust only one person: her own niece. Only she let her into the house, and, as it turned out, in vain. The niece lowered all her awards on the black market, showing old Elena a fake certificate that the awards were deposited in the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. Then, by proxy, she sold the dacha, for which Elena never saw the money. And after the death of her beloved aunt, she completely remained to live in her apartment, having entered into inheritance rights by will, which was written after Elena was declared incapacitated.
Elena Grigorievna died in April 1996.
Actress Anita Kuba was also not destined to end her days in a clear mind. The German press wrote that by the end of her life she had a mental disorder. But Anita spent her old age in a very good nursing home with excellent medical care and died at 98 years old.
Glogau, Silesia, German Empire
Minsk
2) Anita Lindenkol (since 1938)
- German Social Party (since 1911)
- German Conservative Party since 1918)
- German National People's Party (1920-1927)
- NSDAP (since 1927)
Wilhelm Richard Paul Kube(it. Wilhelm richard paul kube; November 13, Glogau, Silesia - September 22, Minsk) - German statesman and politician of the era of Nazi Germany, Commissioner General (head of the occupation administration) of the General District of Belarus (1941-1943).
Biography
Wilhelm Kube was born on 13 November in Glogau, Silesia. He studied at the humanitarian gymnasium and the University of Berlin. In 1911 he joined the German Social Party.
After the Nazis came to power, he was one of the main activists of the new formation of the Lutheran Church, called "German Christians."
Occupation of Belarus
After the start of the Great Patriotic War on July 17, 1941, Cuba was appointed Commissioner General of Belarus (headquartered in Minsk). The General Commissariat "Belorutenia" was formed as part of the "Reichskommissariat" Ostland "", which, in turn, was part of the specially created Reich Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories of Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg. The arrival of Cuba to this position was marked by the execution of 2,278 prisoners of the Minsk ghetto. While in the position of Commissioner General, he pursued a brutal occupation policy, accompanied by the murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
At the same time, Cuba provided assistance to collaborationist organizations, allowed the use of the white-red-white flag and the coat of arms "Pursuit" in the occupied territories.
Attitude towards the genocide of Jews
Cuba had serious contradictions with the SS and SD on the issue of the extermination of Jews. The security authorities insisted on the speedy extermination of Jews as part of the ongoing policy of a final solution to the Jewish question. The civil administration led by Cuba objected to mass destruction able-bodied Jews, as it damaged the economy of the General Commissariat. In addition, Cuba, like Frank, considered himself a sovereign master in the controlled territory, and the leadership of the local police and SS did not reckon with him and did not even inform about the planned actions. Indignation in Cuba was also caused by the fact that among the German Jews deported to the Minsk ghetto, there were many participants in the First World War who fought in the Kaiser's army and had awards.
Death
In response to the murder of Cuba, 300 prisoners in the Minsk prison were shot on the same day. Posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross for Military Merit with swords on September 27, 1943.
Gauleiter's wife Anita died in Germany at the age of 98 in a nursing home. Wrote a book about her husband.
Awards
- Service Medal in the NSDAP (10 years)
- Service Medal in the NSDAP (15 years)
- Knight's Cross of Military Merit with Swords (posthumous)
see also
Write a review on "Cuba, Wilhelm"
Notes (edit)
Link 4 is unreliable in content
Selected fragments of text are highlighted below (for the inattentive reader).
In the article by O.I. Usachev "Selected pages of V. Kube's biography, part 1" on the Volozhinsky website (www.minsk-old-new.com/minsk-3420.htm) mentions:
"Unreliable are also approval that Cuba worked in the Chamber of Commerce, was an officer (major, general), served in the SS troops , during his lifetime had government and party awards, held a (mythical) party position Gauleiter of Belarus, he had only 2 sons, and in Germany or Berlin they declared mourning for the murdered one. "
In (another) article by O.I. Usachev "Separate pages of the biography of V. Cuba, part 2" on the same site of Volozhinsky (minsk-old-new.com/minsk-3421-ru.htm) is specified:
“In 1940, the" SS Reinforcement Units "created in 1934 received the official status of the SS troops and 53 year old Cuba…. autumn 1940 applied for joining the SS troops as a volunteer .
His application was considered for more than six months and, referring to his age and state of health, they refused his request ... Then Cuba at the end of February 1941 on the advice of his old friend-policeman E. Herf (E. Herf) agreed to serve in the protection (not in the SS troops, but in another independent structure of the SS ) an exemplary concentration camp Dachau ... "
Usachev O.I.
| Name of the book: | Who, how and why killed Wilhelm Cuba |
| Usachev O.I. | |
| Responsibility for publishing: | Under total. ed. YES. Taras |
| Place of publication: | Minsk |
| Publisher: | Harvest |
| Typography: | Belarusian. House of the press |
| The year of publishing: | 2013 |
| Number of pages: | 368 |
| Availability of illustrations: | Yes |
| ISSN / ISBN: | 978-985-18-2142-2 |
| Circulation: | 2000 |
| Series: | Unknown story |
| Comments: | The author of the book collected and analyzed extensive factual material about the assassination of the Nazi general commissar of Belarus Wilhelm Kube. The book contains little-known facts of history partisan movement, the activities of the occupation leadership and the German special services. Special attention is given to the personalities of Anita and Wilhelm Kuba, Elena Mazanik, Karl Kleinung and others. From the content: The main Nazi criminals in Belarus; Belarusian Aryans; Mazanik - an employee of the NKVD; Hostage children; Undying myths about the English mine; Elena Mazanik's diary; Little known facts from the biography of Wilhelm Kube et al. |
| Price: | 441 r 50 kopecks |
Links to sources
- Ernst Klee ( Ernst Klee). ISBN 3100393090.
- "Der Großdeutsche Reichstag 1938" ("Der Großdeutsche Reichstag 1938. IV. Wahlperiode (nach dem 30. Januar 1933). Mit Zustimmung des Herrn Reichstagspräsidenten herausgegeben von E. Kienlast, Direktor beim Reichstag 1938, Juncker , E. Schchenck, Berlin W9, p. 64 - daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/bsb00000146/images/index.html?id=00000146&fip=83.149.10.249&no=114&seite=293.
- minsk-old-new.com/minsk-3000.htm. Information from various biographical descriptions of Cuban life that “in the fall of 1940, Cuba volunteered for the Waffen-SS, and in early 1941 he was sent as a rottenführer to the Dachau concentration camp” (www.bautz.de/bbkl/k/kube_w .shtml, minsk-old-new.com/minsk-3258.htm) raises serious doubts and does not find confirmation in historical sources.
- Heinz Höne. Black Order of the SS. The history of the security detachments. - M .: OLMA-PRESS, 2003 .-- S. 326-327.
- Vinnitsa G. // Compiled by Basin Ya.Z. Lessons from the Holocaust: Past and Present: A Collection scientific works... - Mn. : Ark, 2010. - Issue. 3. - S. 75-80. - ISBN 9789856950059.
- Kozak K.I. // Compiled by Basin Ya.Z. Topical Issues of Studying the Holocaust on the Territory of Belarus during the Years of the German-Fascist Occupation: Collection of Scientific Papers. - Mn. : Ark, 2006. - Issue. 2.
- Heer H. The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust // The Tragedy of the Jews of Belarus in 1941-1944: a collection of materials and documents. - Mn. : E. S. Galperin, 1997 .-- S. 30-46. - ISBN 985627902X.
- Nikolay Dolgopolov. // Russian newspaper... - M .. - No. 18 March 2015.
- Ioffe E.G.// Belarus today: newspaper. - Mn. , 21.10.2003. - Issue. 150 (23541).
- Heinz Höne. Black Order of the SS. The history of the security detachments. - M .: OLMA-PRESS, 2003 .-- S. 328.
- In another edition of the same book by Heinz Höne, The Order of the Dead's Head, Moscow, Tsentrpoligraf, p. 307, Himmler's reaction to Cuba's death is conveyed differently: “Cuba died for the good of the fatherland.”
- Alexey Zimin.... Free press. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
Literature
- Heinz Höne.... - M .: OLMA-PRESS, 2003 .-- 542 p. - 6000 copies. - ISBN 5-224-03843-X.
- Zalessky K.A. Leaders and military leaders of the Third Reich: Biographical encyclopedic dictionary .. - M .: "Veche", 2000. - S. 227-228. - 576 p. - ISBN 5-7838-0550-5.
- Zalessky K. NSDAP. Power in the Third Reich. - M .: Eksmo, 2005 .-- S. 289-290. - 672 s. - ISBN 5-699-09780-5.
- Zalessky K.A. Who Was Who in the Third Reich: A Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M .: OOO "AST Publishing House": OOO "Astrel Publishing House", 2002. - S. 389-390. - 942 p. - ISBN 5-17-015753-3 (AST Publishing House LLC); isbn 5-271-05091-2 (Astrel Publishing House LLC).
- Zalessky K. SS. Security detachments of the NSDAP. - M .: Eksmo, 2004 .-- S. 304-305. - 656 p. - ISBN 5-699-06944-5.
- Ernst Klee ( Ernst Klee). Biographical Dictionary Third Reich. Who was who before and after 1945 = Das Personen-lexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. - Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag (S.), 2003. - P. 346. - ISBN 3100393090.(German)
- Zagurska V. Black Maria // Poland "Vidnokrengi", No. 3, March, 1981.
Links
- Literature about Wilhelm Cuba in the catalog of the German National Library: portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?query=Woe%3D128799536&method=simpleSearch
- Wilhelm Kube in the Database of Reichstag Deputies: www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/selectmaske.html?pnd=128799536&recherche=ja
- www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz46481.html
- Volkov Yu.S.// War without embellishment and heroic deeds. Leningrad, 1999.
- Information on the topic in the collection of documents of the Reich Chancellery.
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Excerpt from Cuba, Wilhelm
From that day on, that passionate and tender friendship that exists only between women was established between Princess Marya and Natasha. They kissed incessantly, spoke tender words to each other, and spent most of their time together. If one went out, the other was restless and rushed to join her. The two of them felt a greater harmony with each other than separately, each with itself. A feeling stronger than friendship was established between them: it was an exceptional feeling of the possibility of life only in the presence of each other.Sometimes they were silent for hours; sometimes, already lying in bed, they began to talk and talked until morning. They spoke for the most part about the distant past. Princess Marya talked about her childhood, about her mother, about her father, about her dreams; and Natasha, who had previously turned away from this life, devotion, obedience, from the poetry of Christian self-sacrifice, with a calm lack of understanding, now, feeling herself bound by love with Princess Marya, fell in love with Princess Marya's past and understood the side of life that was previously incomprehensible to her. She did not think to apply humility and self-denial to her life, because she was used to looking for other joys, but she understood and fell in love with this previously incomprehensible virtue in another. For Princess Marya, who listened to stories about Natasha's childhood and first youth, the previously incomprehensible side of life, faith in life, in the pleasures of life, was also revealed.
They never spoke about him in exactly the same way, so as not to break with words, as it seemed to them, the height of the feeling that was in them, and this silence about him did something that little by little, not believing it, they forgot him.
Natasha lost weight, turned pale and became so physically weak that everyone was constantly talking about her health, and it was pleasant to her. But sometimes she unexpectedly found not only the fear of death, but the fear of illness, weakness, loss of beauty, and involuntarily she sometimes carefully examined her bare hand, marveling at her thinness, or looked in the morning in the mirror at her stretched, pathetic, as it seemed to her , face. It seemed to her that it should be so, and at the same time she became scared and sad.
Once she soon went upstairs and was heavily out of breath. Immediately, involuntarily, she thought of a thing below and from there ran upstairs again, trying her strength and observing herself.
Another time she called Dunyasha, and her voice rattled. She called it again, in spite of the fact that she heard her footsteps, - she called in that chesty voice with which she was singing, and listened to him.
She did not know this, she would not have believed, but under the seemingly impenetrable layer of silt that covered her soul, thin, tender young needles of grass were already breaking through, which should have taken root and so cover the grief that had crushed her life with their life shoots that it would soon be invisible and not noticeable. The wound was healing from the inside. At the end of January, Princess Marya left for Moscow, and the count insisted that Natasha go with her in order to consult with the doctors.
After the clash at Vyazma, where Kutuzov could not restrain his troops from the desire to overturn, cut off, etc., the further movement of the fleeing French and the Russians who fled after them, to Krasnoye, took place without battles. The flight was so fast that the Russian army running after the French could not keep up with them, that the horses in the cavalry and artillery were becoming, and that information about the movement of the French was always incorrect.
The people of the Russian army were so exhausted by this continuous movement of forty versts a day that they could not move faster.
To understand the degree of exhaustion of the Russian army, one only needs to clearly understand the meaning of the fact that, having lost no more than five thousand people wounded and killed during the entire movement from Tarutin, without losing hundreds of people prisoners, the Russian army, which left Tarutin in the number of one hundred thousand, came to Red in the number of fifty thousand.
The rapid movement of the Russians behind the French acted on the Russian army as destructively as the flight of the French. The only difference was that the Russian army moved arbitrarily, without the threat of death, which hung over the French army, and that the backward sick people of the French remained in the hands of the enemy, the backward Russians remained at home. The main reason for the decrease in Napoleon's army was the speed of movement, and an undoubted proof of this is the corresponding decrease in Russian troops.
All the activities of Kutuzov, as it was under Tarutin and near Vyazma, was directed only to ensure that, as far as it was in his power, not to stop this disastrous movement for the French (as Russian generals wanted in St. Petersburg and in the army), but assist him and facilitate the movement of his troops.
But, in addition, since the time of exhaustion and enormous losses in the troops, which resulted from the speed of movement, another reason presented itself to Kutuzov for slowing down the movement of troops and for waiting. The goal of the Russian troops was to follow the French. The path of the French was unknown, and therefore, the closer our troops followed on the heels of the French, the more they covered the distance. Only by following a certain distance, it was possible to cut the zigzags that the French made along the shortest path. All the skillful maneuvers that the generals proposed were expressed in troop movements, in increased crossings, and the only reasonable goal was to reduce these crossings. And towards this goal throughout the campaign, from Moscow to Vilna, Kutuzov's activities were directed - not accidentally, not temporarily, but so consistently that he never betrayed her.
Kutuzov knew not intellectually or scientifically, but with his whole Russian being he knew and felt what every Russian soldier felt, that the French were defeated, that the enemies were fleeing and they had to be driven out; but at the same time he felt, along with the soldiers, the whole weight of this campaign, unheard of in the speed and season of the year.
But to the generals, especially not Russians, who wanted to distinguish themselves, surprise someone, take some kind of duke or king prisoner for some reason - it seemed to the generals now, when every battle was both disgusting and senseless, it seemed to them that now was the time give battles and defeat someone. Kutuzov only shrugged his shoulders when, one after the other, they presented projects of maneuvers with those half-starved soldiers, badly shod, without sheepskin coats, who in one month, without battles, had melted to a half and with whom, under the best conditions of continued flight, they had to go to the border the space is larger than the one that was traversed.
In particular, this desire to distinguish themselves and maneuver, overturn and cut off was manifested when Russian troops ran into French troops.
So it happened near Krasny, where they thought to find one of the three columns of the French and stumbled upon Napoleon himself with sixteen thousand. Despite all the means used by Kutuzov in order to get rid of this disastrous clash and to save his troops, Krasny continued for three days to finish off the defeated gatherings of the French by the exhausted people of the Russian army.
Toll wrote the disposition: die erste Colonne marschiert [the first column will go there then], etc. And, as always, everything did not happen according to the disposition. Prince Eugene of Virtemberg shot from the mountain past the fleeing crowds of the French and demanded reinforcements, which did not come. The French, running around the Russians at night, scattered, hid in the woods and made their way, as best they could, further.
Miloradovich, who said that he did not want to know anything about the economic affairs of the detachment, which could never be found when it was needed, "chevalier sans peur et sans reproche" ["a knight without fear and reproach"], as he called himself , and a hunter before talking with the French, sent envoys, demanding surrender, and wasted time and did not what he was ordered to.
“I give you guys this column,” he said, approaching the troops and pointing the cavalrymen at the French. And cavalrymen on skinny, skinned, barely moving horses, urging them on with spurs and sabers, trotted, after strong stresses, drove up to the presented column, that is, to the crowd of frostbitten, numb and hungry French; and the donated column threw down its weapons and surrendered, which it had long wanted.
Near Krasnoye, they took twenty-six thousand prisoners, hundreds of cannons, some kind of stick, which was called a marshal's baton, and argued about who distinguished himself there, and were pleased with this, but very much regretted that they did not take Napoleon or at least some hero, Marshal, and reproached each other for this, and especially Kutuzov.
These people, carried away by their passions, were blind executors of only the saddest law of necessity; but they considered themselves heroes and imagined that what they did was the most worthy and noble deed. They accused Kutuzov and said that from the very beginning of the campaign he had prevented them from defeating Napoleon, that he only thought about satisfying his passions and did not want to leave the Linen Mills, because he was at peace there; that he stopped movement near Krasnoye only because, having learned about Napoleon's presence, he was completely lost; that it can be assumed that he is in a conspiracy with Napoleon, that he has been bribed by him, [Wilson's notes. (Leo Tolstoy's note.)] Etc., etc.
Not only did his contemporaries, carried away by passions, say so, - posterity and history recognized Napoleon as grand, and Kutuzov: foreigners - a cunning, depraved, weak court old man; Russians - somehow indefinite - some kind of doll, useful only by its Russian name ...
In the 12th and 13th years, Kutuzov was directly accused of mistakes. The sovereign was dissatisfied with him. And in a story recently written at the highest command, it is said that Kutuzov was a cunning court liar who feared the name of Napoleon and, by his mistakes at Krasnoye and Berezina, deprived the Russian troops of glory - a complete victory over the French. [The story of Bogdanovich in 1812: a characteristic of Kutuzov and a discussion about the unsatisfactory results of the Krasnensky battles. (Leo Tolstoy's note.)]
This is not the fate of great people, not grand homme, whom the Russian mind does not recognize, but the fate of those rare, always lonely people who, comprehending the will of Providence, subordinate their personal will to it. The hatred and contempt of the crowd punish these people for the enlightenment of the higher laws.
For Russian historians - it is strange and scary to say - Napoleon is the most insignificant instrument of history - never and nowhere, even in exile, who did not show human dignity - Napoleon is an object of admiration and delight; he is grand. Kutuzov, the person who, from the beginning to the end of his activity in 1812, from Borodino to Vilna, never once by any action, not betrayed himself by a word, is an extraordinary example of selflessness and consciousness in the present of the future meaning of an event in history, - Kutuzov seems to them something vague and pathetic, and, speaking of Kutuzov and the 12th year, they always seem to be a little ashamed.
And yet it is difficult to imagine a historical person whose activity would be so invariably constantly directed towards one and the same goal. It is difficult to imagine a goal more worthy and more in line with the will of the entire people. It is even more difficult to find another example in history, where the goal set by a historical person would be as completely achieved as the goal towards which all of Kutuzov's activities were directed in 1812.
Kutuzov never spoke about the forty centuries that look from the pyramids, about the sacrifices that he brings to the fatherland, about what he intends to do or has committed: he did not say anything about himself at all, did not play any role, always seemed to be the simplest and most ordinary man and said the most simple and ordinary things. He wrote letters to his daughters and m me Stael, read novels, loved the company of beautiful women, joked with generals, officers and soldiers and never contradicted those people who wanted to prove something to him. When Count Rostopchin on the Yauzsky bridge galloped up to Kutuzov with personal reproaches about who was to blame for the death of Moscow, and said: "How did you promise not to leave Moscow without giving a battle?" - Kutuzov replied: "I will not leave Moscow without a battle," despite the fact that Moscow had already been abandoned. When Arakcheev, who came to him from the sovereign, said that Ermolov should be appointed chief of artillery, Kutuzov replied: “Yes, I myself have just said that,” although he said something completely different in a minute. What business was it to him, who alone then understood the whole tremendous meaning of the event, among the stupid crowd that surrounded him, what did he care whether Count Rostopchin took the disaster of the capital to himself or to him? Still less could he be interested in who was appointed chief of artillery.
Not only in these cases, but incessantly this old man, who has come down to the experience of life to the conviction that the thoughts and words that serve as their expression are not the movers of people, spoke words completely meaningless - the first ones that occurred to him.
But this very man, who so neglected his words, never once in all his activity said a single word that would not agree with the only goal to which he was going during the whole war. Obviously, involuntarily, with a heavy confidence that they would not understand him, he repeatedly expressed his thought in a wide variety of circumstances. Starting from the Battle of Borodino, from which his discord with those around him began, he alone said that the Battle of Borodino was a victory, and repeated this both orally, and in reports, and reports until his death. He alone said that the loss of Moscow is not the loss of Russia. In response to Lauriston's proposal for peace, he replied that there can be no peace, because such is the will of the people; he alone, during the retreat of the French, said that all our maneuvers were unnecessary, that everything would turn out by itself better than we wish, that the enemy should be given a golden bridge, that neither Tarutinskoe, nor Vyazemskoe, nor Krasnenskoe battles were needed, that with what one day he must come to the border, that for ten Frenchmen he will not give up one Russian.
And he alone, this court man, as we are portrayed, a man who lies to Arakcheev in order to please the sovereign - he alone, this court man, in Vilna, thus deserving the sovereign's disfavor, says that a further war abroad is harmful and useless.
But words alone would not prove that he then understood the meaning of the event. His actions were all without the slightest deviation, all were directed towards the same goal, expressed in three actions: 1) to exert all his forces to confront the French, 2) to defeat them, and 3) to expel them from Russia, making it as easy as possible, the calamities of the people and the troops.
He, the procrastinator of Kutuzov, whose motto is patience and time, the enemy of decisive actions, he gives the Battle of Borodino, clothe preparations for it in unparalleled solemnity. He, the same Kutuzov, who in the battle of Austerlitz, before starting it, says that it will be lost, in Borodino, despite the assurances of the generals that the battle is lost, despite the unheard-of example in history that after a battle won, the army must retreat , he alone, in opposition to everyone, until his death asserts that the Battle of Borodino is a victory. He alone during the entire retreat insists not to give battles, which are now useless, not to start a new war and not to cross the borders of Russia.
Now it is easy to understand the meaning of the event, if only not to apply to the activities of the masses the goals that were in the head of a dozen people, it is easy, since the entire event with its consequences lies before us.
But how then could this old man, alone, contrary to the opinion of everyone, have guessed, so correctly guessed then the meaning of the national meaning of the event, that he never once betrayed it in all his activities?
The source of this extraordinary power of insight into the meaning of occurring phenomena lay in that popular feeling, which he carried in himself in all its purity and strength.
Only the recognition of this feeling in him made the people in such strange ways from an old man in disfavor to choose him against the will of the tsar as a representative of the people's war. And only this feeling put him on that highest human height from which he, the commander-in-chief, directed all his forces not to kill and exterminate people, but to save and pity them.
65 years ago these days occupied Minsk was stirred up by the assassination of the General Commissioner of Belarus Wilhelm Kube.
On the night of September 22-23, an English magnetic mine exploded in his bedroom, which a young woman Elena Mazanik had planted in his bed in Cuba. She worked as a servant in the mansion.
Every Belarusian schoolchild knows this story. But it turns out that for all the drama and heroism of the textbook version, other events took place with the participants in this story in life.
This murder connected two completely different women for life. Both the victim and the killer remembered each other all their lives. The widow of Cuba, without even demanding revenge, sought contact with Elena Mazanik. Elena, having become a Hero according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, lived the rest of her life in fear and loneliness, my apartment and locked with a dozen locks ...
The first letter came in 1976
Our regular reader came to the editorial office of the newspaper. Soviet time worked as a translator at the Bureau of International Youth Tourism "Sputnik" Oleg USACHEV. Numerous questions from German tourists, to which he had to answer at one time, forced Oleg Ivanovich to study the history of the murder of Cuba a little more thoroughly than the textbooks and museum stands presented.
Since 1976, Oleg Ivanovich has faced not only the incredible interest of the Germans in the murder of Cuba, but also with attempts to meet with Elena Mazanik and give her a personal message from Anita Kube.
Is talking KP.BY Oleg USACHEV:
In the summer of 1976, I conducted an excursion around Minsk and Khatyn for tourists on the "Friendship" train from the GDR ...
From the editorial board
The so-called "Friendship" trains came to Minsk from East Berlin. Such cooperation was established with the aim of uniting socialist Germany, which was already falling apart, with other socialist republics... Since the mid-70s, the phenomenon has become widespread; several Druzhba trains arrived in Minsk every day. Most of these vouchers were free or symbolic.
The Druzhba trains were served by translators from the International Youth Tourism Bureau. They, as a rule, did not take pictures with tourists and did not exchange addresses, and if they suddenly gave an address, then they all had one: a foreign language hostel.
- ... Then, in 1976, several people at once approached me with questions about Elena Mazanik: will there be a meeting with her in the museum of the history of the Great Patriotic War. The Germans already knew from previous tourists that Elena used to come to the museum. And they said that one of the tourists is Anita's relative and he has a letter for Elena.
In the museum, I conveyed the request to the staff ... They immediately ran away to confer behind closed doors. Mazanik did not come to the meeting with the tourists of this train.
A week later, I was again at the museum with another Druzhba train from the GDR. The museum staff advised me to forget about this story. It was decided not to advertise Anita's attempts to get in touch with Mazanik.
And in the summer of the same 1976, in one of the regular trains "Friendship", a young German woman asked me to give her her address.
- Oleg, can I have your address?
I didn’t refuse. Then she asked:
- Will it frighten you that I am a relative of Cuba?
Soon a postcard came to my home address, in response to which I sent a letter. Nothing containing, just the attendants "thank you", "how are you." From the experience of correspondence with other Germans, I know that they are obligatory people, and if she received my letter, she would send an answer ... But I received nothing more from her ...
In those years, Elena herself did not mind meeting with Anita. But her senior comrades from the KGB did not advise her to do this. They say that these meetings will be used for anti-Soviet propaganda. Possible provocations. God forbid Elena will have to ask Anita for forgiveness!
Although most likely Anita just wanted to reliably find out from Mazanik how her beloved husband died. She has forgiven her former servant, about which she actually wrote in her letters to Minsk. After all, the order to kill her husband came from Stalin himself, and it was impossible to disobey him. She even felt sorry for Elena….
In 1992, the letter reached
The story with letters from Anita stretches right up to the present day.
Tells KP.BY Oleg USACHEV:
In 2007, I tracked down the husband of Elena Mazanik's niece, Alexander Pigulevsky. For me, there was still a lot of incomprehensible things in the story with Mazanik. Many people came to Pigulevsky before me ... He did not trust everyone. But Alexander Alexandrovich gave me a box with old photographs. Reluctantly, but gave. And in them I suddenly found a letter from Anita Cuba. It was dated 1992. And separately there were photographs of Anita with her grown-up sons. I have heard about this letter before. I was told that in 1992, on the Druzhba train, a German arrived again with a letter from Anita. He took it directly to the Museum of the Great Patriotic War to the mass department, but they were afraid to take him there. And they refused on the pretext that the museum was not authorized to accept such letters. But an employee of the Chernoglazov Museum nevertheless took the letter, deciding to betray it to Mazanik.
They say Elena threw a tantrum upon seeing the letter. The KGB scared her to death with provocations. Elena refused to go to the museum for a letter, saying, I won't go, I don't have to. Chernoglazova insisted: the letter does not oblige you to anything, take it, read it, and then do what you want ... And the fact that I was holding this letter in my hands said that Mazanik then, in 1992, was all -So took! And I read it. And she kept it until her death.
I looked at the envelope signed by Anita's hand for a long time, and then Pigulevsky himself offered to give it to me ... "But no one needs it, take it."
I made copies of almost all of the photographs. About a hundred.
What to do with the letter? To the war museum? The national archives? But this is connected with Anita ... The National Archives took electronic copies of the photographs. And with the consent of Pigulevsky, I gave the original letter to Raisa Andreevna Chernoglazova, the same employee of the museum who gave this letter in 1992 to Elena Mazanik.
Oleg Ivanovich is sure that there were more letters. At least, it is known about two more letters that German journalist Paul Kohl conveyed to Elena Mazanik in different years. Kohl claims that Mazanik tore the first letter before his eyes. And a few years later he brought another letter. Elena took it ...
HOW THERE WAS THEIR FATE
Anita Cuba lived for 95 years and died in a nursing home where she wanted to move herself. She was cared for by highly qualified doctors and staff. In publications in the German press it was claimed that in last years Anita suffered from a mental disorder. Her sons often visited her.
Elena Mazanik died at 82 years old, in recent years she suffered from an acute mental disorder. She constantly kept housekeepers in the house. And having retired at the age of 46, she lived under the supervision of her niece Lydia Pigulevskaya. In the perestroika times, the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union Elena Mazanik was sold by relatives.
Before the war, Elena had two sons died. Zhenya - in 1935 at the age of one and a half years. She gave her son to relatives in the Belarusian village of Poddegtyarnoe, where the child fell ill infectious disease and died of dehydration. This is what the relatives say.
Mazanik lost her second son in 1939. Pregnant Elena was badly shaken in the back of a truck. Premature birth, and the baby, born a few weeks before the due date, could not be saved. He lived for several days.
In Minsk, women knew each other for about a year, but did not communicate. From 1942 to September 1943, Mazanik carried out the instructions of the Cuban family: she set tables, cleaned the premises of the adjutants. Contrary to popular belief, Elena did not know German, she expressed herself with a couple of phrases.
Before the war, Mazanik was an employee of the NKVD for 10 years, worked in the canteens of the NKVD and government dachas. There she learned to serve lunches and banquets, walk dogs, babysit children. At the age of 29, she compares favorably with the young students who were hired by the Germans to work as servants. Large, efficient. In the Cuba mansion, her name was Galina Bolshaya. Big legs, arms.
Elena wrote in her autobiography that Cuba took her to work, knowing that she was an employee of the NKVD. He decided that there would be no turning back for her. After all, those who worked for the Germans were considered traitors to their homeland.
It was different for Anita. A young actress from Hamburg, she came to a provincial German town to play in the drama Totila. Its author was the famous German politician Wilhelm Kube. And this was Anita's last role in the theater. Then a happy marriage and the birth of four children. True, the fourth son never saw his father. Cuba was killed while Anita was pregnant.
Photo from the personal archive of Oleg USACHEV.
About how Elena Mazanik lived in her last years in Minsk, read in "fatty" in October.
