Dmitry Karov arrived in the Soviet occupied territory in August 1941. On it, he found people angry with Stalin and the NKVD, most of them easily agreed to work for Germany. The former Soviet people also actively began to build people's capitalism under the Germans. All of this is reminiscent of Yeltsin's Russia in the early 1990s.
Karov (Kandaurov) Dmitry Petrovich (1902-1961) - officer of the Abwehr (1941-1944) and the Armed Forces of the KONR (1945). Left Russia in 1919. Since 1920 he has been in Paris. Graduated from Russian gymnasium, university. In the summer of 1940, he left for employment in Germany, worked as a translator at an aircraft engine plant in Hanover. At the end of 1940, he agreed to work in German intelligence agencies until the creation of an independent Russian state. With the beginning of the war with the USSR, he was assigned to the naval reconnaissance detachment. From December 1941 he served in the Ic department of the headquarters of the 18th Army (Army Group North). In the 1950s, he worked at the Institute for the Study of History and Culture of the USSR (Munich).
Compiled in 1950 a memoir "Russians in the service of German intelligence and counterintelligence", typewritten version. For the first time, a part of the memoirs is published in the book "Under the Germans" (Encyclopedic Department of the Institute of Philology, Faculty of Philology, St. Petersburg State University). The Interpreter's blog quotes part of this diary.
Kingisepp
The detachment went to Russia, closer to the front. I was thrilled, thinking that now I would find myself in real Russia, which I had left in 1919. We saw the moat, and Captain Babel, stopping the car, said: "This is the border, this is your Motherland" - and looked at me expectantly. He later told how the Russian officers of the Wehrmacht reacted. One, getting out of the car, began to kiss the ground, kneeling. Another announced that he would spend the night in the forest to listen to Russian nightingales. The third showed patriotism by putting Russian soil in bags in order to send it to Paris. I did not have a character capable of such scenes, and Captain Babel was disappointed with me.
We arrived at the village of Glinka. On the way we met a detachment of Soviet cavalry. Several German gunners accompanied him. They explained to me that they were taking the prisoners to the camp. When I asked if they were afraid that the cavalrymen would run away, the artilleryman answered me that the whole detachment surrendered voluntarily, having first interrupted their superiors.
The village of Glinka was Old Believer. I soon met all the mayors of the area. They were all elderly, believers in God. Under Soviet rule, they were all persecuted and imprisoned. The entire population was afraid that the Germans would leave and the Soviets would come again.
An elderly peasant Semyon became my first agent. He said that he would work, because he believed that the communists should be destroyed by all possible means, but he did not want to receive money for this, since it was a sin.
An interpreter I knew from Riga created a detachment of Soviet prisoners of war. He said that the soldiers did not want to fight for Stalin, but they were afraid of German captivity. The common dream was, having driven the Germans out of Russia, to kill the Stalinists and communists, to establish freedom, and most importantly, to destroy the collective farms.
The agents, without exception, were volunteers and could at any time refuse to work, and in this case they were provided with good places in the rear. The only exceptions were agents who received the task and did not complete it. They were sent to special camps near Konigsberg, which were called "camps for those who know secret things" and in which the prisoners were very well treated: they received military rations, a lot of cigarettes, there was a library in the camp; prisoners lived in 3-4 people in a room and had the opportunity to walk in the garden.
Having crossed the front three times, one could retire to the deep rear. For the most part, people from 30 to 40 years old, courageous, but did not like to risk their lives agreed to this. But all the scouts hated the Soviet regime.
A typical example is a woman named Zhenya. She commanded a detachment in Krasnogvardeisk (Gatchina). She was 26 years old, before the war she lived in Leningrad, worked as a sex worker in the NKVD and did a little prostitution. She was sent across the front in early September 1941, she immediately appeared in the Severskaya commandant's office and offered to work as an agent for the Germans. She explained this by the fact that she was terribly tired of life in the USSR with its dullness and boredom, and she is sure that with her good work she will be able to earn her trust, and after the end of the war - a secure life abroad. In 1943, Zhenya asked to be released from the service, motivating the request with great fatigue, and send her to live in Germany. Her request was fulfilled, and in addition, she received a large monetary award Zhenya and now (1950) lives in Germany, has a well-established and profitable lingerie store.
Chudovo
In early April 1942, I arrived at Chudovo. It was home to 10,000 civilians. It was run by the chosen Russian burgomaster. A great swindler and speculator, but an intelligent and energetic person, he performed his duties well, in which he was assisted by 6 elected burgomasters who sat at the head of the districts. There were Russian police and a fire brigade in Chudovo.
The worst of all was the life of the Chudov intelligentsia, who had previously served in Soviet institutions. The population considered them parasites, and no one wanted to help them. For the most part, the intelligentsia was disgusting and self-confident, but anti-Soviet. They did not want a monarchy, nor did they want Stalin. Lenin and NEP - that was their ideal.
Merchants and artisans lived very well. We had to be surprised at the ingenuity they showed. I saw a workshop for ladies' dresses. Others have opened restaurants and tea houses. There were furriers, goldsmiths and silversmiths. All merchants hated Soviet power and only wanted freedom of trade. Soviet officials of the NKVD, with whom I spoke during interrogations, said that after the peasantry, Stalin was hated most of all by the workers and that the NKVD seksots were often killed in factories. Craftsmen in Chudovo lived well. Watchmakers, shoemakers, tailors were overwhelmed with work.
The clergy living in the city were Orthodox and Old Believers. The Old Believers' tutors were universally respected and were well-read and fair people. The population did not respect Orthodox priests with special respect. They didn't impress me either. The priest and the deacon recruited by my agents worked poorly, studied reluctantly, but demanded rewards constantly.
Vitebsk
I was transferred here in 1943. At the head of Vitebsk was a Russian burgomaster, a man of about 30 years old. He pretended to be a Belarusian patriot, and therefore, in the presence of the Germans, he spoke only Belarusian, and the rest of the time he spoke Russian. He had more than 100 officials, and the external and criminal police were also subordinate to him. The Germans did not interfere in the affairs of the police and city government, but did not help in any way, leaving the residents to take care of food, firewood, etc.
Trade flourished surprisingly: shops and stores were everywhere. Enterprising merchants "in black" went from Vitebsk to Germany, Poland, Austria, while others traveled to the west, buying goods there, which they briskly traded at home. In circulation were German marks (real and occupational), Russian rubles (paper and gold - the latter, to my surprise, there were a lot).
There were 2 or 3 hospitals in the city, neglected due to lack of funds, but with very good doctors, whom the Germans constantly invited for consultations. There were also several very good and expensive private hospitals, which served mainly speculators.
The main station was always - day and night - crowded with people, and it was a bazaar. Everyone was buying and selling. German soldiers on their way home bought food here. And drunken Cossacks from anti-partisan detachments, who had come to rest in the city, walked around. Porters and cabbies stood in front of the station, as well as lively young people who offered transportation in German cars that belonged to state institutions and stood with their German chauffeurs in the neighboring streets waiting for customers (as the police did not fight this phenomenon, they could not do anything: it hurt the German drivers loved vodka). Moving a little further from the station, I was amazed at the abundance of teahouses and small basement restaurants. The prices were high, but all these establishments were full of people and everywhere they drank vodka (Polish), moonshine, German beer and Baltic wine made from fruits. The food in these restaurants was also plentiful.
There were also brothels in Vitebsk, and separately for Germans and Russians. Terrible fights often took place there: the Russians stormed brothels for the Germans. There were cinemas, only films in them were German, but, however, with Russian signatures. There were also two Russian theaters that enjoyed great success. Many cafes and restaurants held dancing in the evenings.
In addition to the many German soldiers, there were also a lot of Russian soldiers in the city. Most of all, the attention was drawn to the Cossacks, who wore hats, checkers and whips; besides, they were the biggest brawlers. Then, in the city there were people from special detachments of the SD - Russians, Latvians, Estonians and Caucasians, who were very well dressed in various costumes, and on their sleeves had the fatal letters in a triangle - SD. No one in the city liked these people, known for their cruelty and robberies, and other military men, both Russians and Germans, avoided communicating with them. There were detachments of nationalities, which consisted of Kazakhs and especially Tatars. They did not fight a lot, but were more involved in the protection of warehouses.
The Russians, who were numbered at different headquarters, ortskommandatura, etc., were distinguished by the splendor of their uniforms and especially their insignia. Their shoulders and collars were covered with silver, which shone especially brightly on sunny days, and their chests were hung with decorations that they wore in their natural form, not limited to ribbons on the shoes. Their heads were decorated with either colored caps, or hats with a bright top. I have no doubt that they would gladly carry checkers, but only the Cossacks were allowed to do this.
At that time, the following were stationed in Vitebsk: 622-625 Cossack battalions, 638 Cossack company, 3-6 / 508th Turkestan supply companies, 4/18 Volga-Tatar construction company, eastern companies - 59th, 639th, 644th, 645th security, 703rd training, 3 / 608th supply.
There were several newspapers in the city, one of them was Belarusian. The journalists were intelligent people, staunch opponents of communism and Stalin; Soviet agents sometimes killed the most zealous of them.
