The march of captured Germans in Moscow (also the Parade of the Vanquished, Operation Big Waltz)
The march of captured Germans in Moscow (also the Parade of the Vanquished, Operation Big Waltz) took place on Monday, July 17, 1944. About 57,000 German soldiers and officers, mostly captured by the troops of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian fronts, marched in columns along the Garden Ring and other streets of the capital.
During Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944, the German Army Group Center was defeated. About 400,000 soldiers and officers were destroyed or captured. These losses were much higher than the Stalingrad.
Of the 47 generals of the Wehrmacht who fought as commanders of corps and divisions, 21 were captured. Allies doubted such a grand defeat of the Germans in Belarus. It was a good opportunity to demonstrate the successes of the USSR in the war, to raise the spirit of Muscovites and residents of other cities.
It was decided to hold captive Germans, led by their generals, through the streets of Moscow and Kiev. The operation was carried out by the NKVD, it was named after the musical comedy The Great Waltz. It was announced on the radio in the morning of July 17, and also printed on the front page of Pravda.
Translation of some official documents regarding this event.
Top secret
ind. Number 1
July 15, 1944
No. 756 / B
To comrade STALIN I.V.
The escort of prisoners of war through Moscow will begin at 11 a.m. on July 17 from the Hippodrome along Leningradskoye Shosse, Gorky Street through Mayakovsky Square, along Sadovo-Karetnaya, Sadovo-Samotechnaya, Sadovo-Sukharevskaya, Sadovo-Chernogryazskaya to Kursky Station Square. Only 18 echelons will pass along this route.From Mayakovsky Square on Bolshaya Sadovaya, Sadovo-Kudrinskaya through the Crimean and Kaluga Square and Bolshaya Kaluga will pass 8 trains.The movement of the columns is controlled by the commander of the MBO troops, Colonel General ARTEMIEV.
Maintaining order on the streets and organizing traffic and pedestrians are led by the commandant of the city of Moscow, Major General SINILOV and the chief of the police of the city of Moscow, 2nd-rank police commissioner ROMANCHENKO.At the same time, I present a draft notice from the police chief of the city of Moscow, which is supposed to be printed in Pravda on July 17 on page 1 and transmitted on the Moscow City Closed Radio Network at 7-8 a.m. on July 17.Attached is the movement pattern of the columns.
People's Commissar of the Interior of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic L. Beria.
NOTICE
From the police chief of the Moscow
Office of the police. Of Moscow informs citizens that on July 17 a portion of German ordinary and prisoner-of-war German prisoners of war, to the number of 57,600 people from the number of recently captured 1st, 2nd and 3rd Byelorussian troops, will be escorted through Moscow to prisoners of war fronts.In this regard, on July 17 from 11 a.m. traffic and pedestrians along the routes of prisoners of war columns: Leningradskoye Shosse, ul. Gorky, Mayakovsky Square, Garden Ring, along the streets: 1st Meshchanskaya, Kalanchevskaya, B. Kaluzhskaya, Smolenskaya, Kalyaevskaya, Novo-Slobodskaya and in the area of the squares: Kolkhoznaya, Krasnye Vorota, Kursky station, Crimean, Smolenskaya and Kudrinskaya. will be limited.Citizens are required to observe the order established by the police and not to allow any tricks in relation to prisoners of war. CHIEF OF THE POLICE . MOSCOW 2nd rank police commissioner ROMANCHENKO AP of the Russian Federation. F.3. Op. 58. D.500. L.54 / 55. Script.
July 17, 1944
No. 763-B
Top secret
ind. Number 1
STATE DEFENSE COMMITTEE
Comrade STALIN I.V.
The NKVD of the USSR reports on the results of the convoy through the city of Moscow of German prisoners of war captured by the Red Army of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian fronts.The movement of prisoner of war columns from the Moscow Hippodrome began at exactly 11 a.m. today, July 17, along the route: Leningradskoye Shosse, Gorky Street, Mayakovsky Square, Sadovo-Karetnaya, Sadovo-Samotechnaya, Sadovo-Chernogryazskaya, Chkalova Street, Kursky Station and along the streets: Kalyaevskaya, Novo-Slobodskaya, 1st Meshchansky. 42,000 prisoners of war passed along this route, including a column of prisoners of war generals and officers numbering 1,227 people, including 19 generals and 6 senior officers (colonels and lieutenant colonels).
The movement of columns of prisoners of war on this route lasted 2 hours 25 minutes.
The second part of the columns of prisoners of war passed from Mayakovsky Square through the streets: Bolshaya Sadovaya, Sadovo-Kudrinskaya, Novinsky Boulevard. Smolensky Boulevard, Zubovskaya Square, Krymskaya Square, Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street, Kanatchikovo Station, District Railway. 15.600 prisoners of war passed along this route and the movement of the columns lasted 4 hours 20 minutes.The columns went along the front of 20 people.The movement of the columns was led by the commander of the Moscow Military District, Colonel General ARTEMIEV.
Upon arrival at loading points, prisoners of war immediately plunged into the railway echelons to be sent to prisoner of war camps.By 7 p.m., all 25 trains of prisoners of war were loaded onto wagons and sent to their destinations.Of the total number of 57.600 prisoners of war escorted through the city, 4 people were sent to the Sanletochka due to weakening.
Prisoners of war generals, upon arrival at Kursky Station, were loaded onto vehicles and delivered to their destination.During the passage of columns of prisoners of war, the population behaved in an organized manner.
During the passage of the prisoners of war columns from the population there were numerous enthusiastic exclamations and cheers in honor of the Red Army, our High Command and in honor of the generals and officers of the Red Army. There were a large number of anti-fascist cries: “Death to Hitler”, “Death to fascism”, “Bastards so they died”, “Organization of "parade"”, etc.There were no incidents in the city during the passage of columns of prisoners of war.
The streets of the city through the passage of columns of prisoners of war were properly cleaned and washed. PEOPLE'S COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS Union of the USSR L. Beria.AP of the Russian Federation. F.3. Op. 58. D.500. L.59v60. Script.
List of German generals march participants in Moscow
1st GL Rudolf Bamler - 12th Infantry Div.
2nd GL Werner von Bercken - 102nd Infantry Div.
3rd GM Alexander Conrady - 36th Infantry Div.
4. GM Joachim Engel - 45th Infantry Div.
5. GM Gustav Gihr - 707th Infantry Div.
6. Gen.d.Inf. Friedrich Gollwitzer - LIII Army Corps
7. GL Adolf Hamann - Commandant of Bobruisk
8. GL Walter Heyne - 6th Infantry Div.
9th GL Alfons Hitter - 206th Infantry Div.
10.GL Edmund Hoffmeister - XXXXI Pz.Corps
11.GM Günther Klammt - 260th Infantry Div.
12. GL Eberhard von Kurowski - 110th Infantry Div.
13. GL Kurt-Jьrgen Freiherr von Ltzow - XXXV Army Corps
14. GM Herbert Michaelis - 95th Infantry Div.
15. GL Vincenz Müller - XII Army Corps
16. GM Claus Mueller-Bьlow - 246th Infantry Div.
17th GL Wilhelm Oschsner - 31st Infantry Div.
18th GL Johann-Georg Richert - 35th Infantry Div.
19th GM Friedrich-Carl von Steinkeller - Pz.Gr.Div “Feldherrnhalle”
20th GL Hans Traut - 78th Sturm Div.
21st GM Adolf Trowitz - 57th Infantry Div.
22. Gen.d.Inf. Paul Vilckers - XXVII Army Corps
23rd Gen. Art. Rolf Wuthmann - IX Army Corps
Organization of "parade"
The prisoners were gathered at the Moscow Hippodrome and Dynamo Stadium. Even before the stage, every German prisoner underwent a thorough examination. Only healthy and able to move independently were taken to Moscow.
Firefighters brought prisoners of water. The prisoners received reinforced rations - porridge and bread with lard.By 11 a.m. on July 17, the prisoners were divided into two groups and built in accordance with the rank of 600 people (20 people on the front). Colonel General P. A. Artemyev, commander of the MVO troops, led the passage of the columns.The first group (42,000 people) walked in 2 hours 25 minutes along Leningradskoye Shosse and Gorky Street (now Tverskaya) to Mayakovsky Square, then clockwise along the Garden Ring to the Kursk Station.
Among this group were 1227 prisoners with officer and general ranks, including 19 generals walking in their orders and uniforms, 6 colonels and lieutenant colonels.The second group (15,000 people) marched counterclockwise along the Garden Ring, starting from Mayakovsky Square, reaching the Kanatchikovo District Railway Station in 4 hours 20 minutes (then the outskirts of Moscow, now the Leninsky Prospekt metro area).
Columns were accompanied by riders with drawn sabers and escorts with rifles at the ready. The captives were followed by irrigation machines, symbolically washing the earth from Hitler’s evil spirits.
The "parade" ended at seven in the evening, when all the prisoners were placed on the cars and were sent to places of detention. Four prisoners who fell behind the convoy received medical assistance.
Among the prisoners was a column of French collaborators. “They all attached to their jackets a semblance of tricolor cockades, and when they caught up with us and saw General Petit standing in the back of a truck with their sides folded down, they started shouting:“ Viv la France, my general!
We were not volunteers! They called us forcibly. Long live France! “Ernest Petit did not show the slightest sympathy for them. On the contrary, evil spat and said through gritted teeth: “Bastards! He who did not want is with us. ”In a report to the State Defense Committee on the letterhead of the NKVD of the USSR, L.P. Beria reported that during the procession "the population had a large number of anti-fascist cries:" Death to Hitler! "And" Death to fascism! " However, in general, according to witnesses, there were very few aggressive or anti-German attacks.
Map of the "Parade of Prisoners" movement
In Kiev, the march of German prisoners took place a month later - on Wednesday, August 16, 1944. A column of prisoners of war consisting of 36,918 people, including 549 officers, walked around the city from 10:00 for 5 hours.
I would like to immediately put an end to the question "the Soviet Union kept prisoners until 1955"
In October 1955, after the visit of German Chancellor K. Adenauer, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a Decree "On the Early Release and Repatriation of German Prisoners of War Convicted of War Crimes" and more than 14 thousand German prisoners of war were repatriated from the USSR.
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