Tag #156960 - Interview #78231 (yakov voloshyn)

There were political units in every regiment. We didn't have political classes. Political officers read newspapers delivered to units. They also looked into minor disciplinary violations: somebody didn't clean a gun as required or quit his post or didn't come to stand sentinel. In case of serious violations there was a tribunal. There were SMERSH officers of the frontline security service. [Editor's note: Smersh was a special secret military unit for the elimination of spies, SMERSH is an abbreviation that stands for 'smert shpionam' in Russian, 'death to spies'.] In our regiment no death sentences were issued. They usually sentenced a person to five years and this individual remained in the same regiment. When a person distinguished himself in action or rescued another person his sentence was called off and later it happened that it was completely forgotten.

The fascists were evil enemies. Those who weren't at the front could have thought otherwise, but we saw it all with our own eyes. We saw villages burnt to the ground: only chimneys remained. We saw families coming out of cellars with their children and bags, dirty, wearing rags; they were rare survivors. We saw those people burying their dear ones, small children burnt alive for nobody knows what sins. We saw and heard it all. We marched into battles with the words 'For our Motherland, for Stalin!', and they were not mere slogans or meaningless words. This was our faith, religion, a call of the heart and conscience, if you want. Nobody will take this away from me! For our Motherland, for Stalin we marched into the battles. This was what we knew and what we believed in. It's another story how many casualties it cost us to retake this village...