The Great Offensive

translated by N.Denisova, an attache of the Representative Office of MFA of Russia in Kaliningrad

Our offensive looks like the sequence of inevitable steps of History. We have taken over Oppeln, one of the largest German industrial centers. We are approaching Königsberg and threatening Breslau. As we are getting closer to Danzig, the names of West Prussian towns are appearing in our reports. Our vanguard elements are closer to Berlin than to Warsaw now.

The Germans can't hide their dismay, I mean their leaders. There are articles by Minister Ley, the head of the press department, Zunderman, and General Ditmar in front of me. The articles are full of exclamation marks that convey their howl and ellipsis that reveal their tremor.

"We are experiencing what people experience when the raging elements destroy the dams they have built" (Ley).

"We can say nothing but: to the barricades!.." (Zunderman).

"Space is no longer by our side. Now the outcome of the war is being determined " (Hamburger Fremdenblatt).

"The gravity of the situation is incredible... Events on a knife's edge... Some islands are sinking in the flood... Apocalyptic hordes are moving towards us... What recently has been a distant threat to residents of the central regions, remote from the border areas, has now become their immediate fate... Everything is at stake... It remains for us to win or die..." (Dietmar).

Win? Even a German with no sense of humor will laugh out loud. What a victory is here! "Or" looks odd in the context: they have nothing left but to die.

Minister Ley frankly writes that "great events give him no chance for any reflexion." He had hardly been reflexive ever before, this marauder, famous for large-scale embezzlement and minor scandals. By now he's completely lost his mind.

Needless to say, what happens to ordinary Germans. They are neither writing articles, speaking about the barricades nor quoting the apocalypse. They're being preoccupied with the other problem: where would they flee? They have turned their attention back to geography. Three years ago, they were fascinated by the riches of the Urals and Mesopotamia, and they were looking at maps of Egypt and the Caucasus. Now they are being more concerned with Bavaria, they are dreaming of a shelter in some South Germany villages. Ubermenschen resemble ordinary rats.

Beaten in the east, the Germans are still trying to keep a straight face in the West. Oh, of course, they're beaten in the West, too. It's not about winning, it's about saving face: by turning to the west, the Germans are still pretending to be unperturbed. They no longer expect to take over Belgian cities, they have become more modest: they want to fool some military observers in Britain and America. And indeed, they managed to fool some journalists. The press wrote that the Germans had fled "according to a premeditated plan."

I think back about everything written about us during the war years, and I keep asking myself if people can be that naive. How can readers still follow the columnists who have been cheating them for four years? Have American and English readers forgotten that in some newspapers Russia was invariably referred to as a "colossus with feet of clay"? Now it's high time to ask the observers how Russia managed to get from the Volga to the Oder “on feet of clay”. The observers once wrote about the inevitable fall of Moscow. They did not care to get new pseudonyms to start writing about the inevitable fall of Berlin. The Allies had been preparing for military operations in France for three years. The observers attributed this solely to strategic circumstances. After three years of fierce battles, the Red Army spent four months preparing to break through the powerful German defense in Poland. The same observers attributed it solely to political circumstances. When the Red Army defeated the Germans in Belarus, some allied newspapers said that the German army had been exhausted and it was not the strength of the Russians, but the weakness of the Germans. When the Germans advanced fifty kilometers into the Belgian Ardennes, the same newspapers began to repeat that the German army was unusually strong. Now these newspapers are being confused with the rapid advance of the Red Army; they mutter that the Germans themselves might have “presented” the Russians such knick knacks as Lodz or Oppeln. These gentlemen are equally unhappy with our advancements and 1-minute stops. One might think that the Red Army is not engaged in defeating the Germans but in a polemic with foreign journalists.

However, these are just moans and sighs that should be neglected on our way to Berlin. We are being busy with much more substantial thing than refuting the military reviews of the Daily Telegraph or the New York Times: we are advancing. War correspondents on the Western Front report that British, American and French soldiers are delighted to receive news of the victories; every evening they wait for new fireworks in Moscow. They might want to respond to these salutes with their guns and complement the invasion of Silesia with the invasion of the Ruhr. German newspapers are trying to reassure their shocked readers: "We are fighting in the East, but in the West there is peace and quiet, thanks to the skillful strategy of our Fuhrer." The Germans might lose the West as well. The Reuters and Associated Press report that there are far fewer Germans on the Western Front: they are rushing from the Ardennes not to Antwerp, as they had expected, but to Breslau and Danzig. It is quite possible that after such a movement of Germans, Americans and British will begin to move as well: from the Ardennes to the Ruhr, to Cologne or to Frankfurt. By the way, there are two Frankfurts — Frankfurt am Mein and Frankfurt an der Oder. If we tackle with the one on the Oder soon, our allies may well decide to do the same with the one on the Mein. I know that the British outraged by the continued shelling of peaceful cities are eager to finish off the Germans as soon as possible. I am also aware of the spirit of America and the anger of offended France. A railway runs through the whole city of Berlin; the station on the eastern outskirts is called Silesian, we have chosen this station. Also there is Charlottenburg station in the western suburbia of Berlin, an elegant rich area that seems to be suitable for our allies.

Our offensive should make both enemies and friends think twice. Military experts from various countries have repeatedly said that the Russian army is only suitable for war on its own territory and that it is powerless outside its native forests. The Red Army is now fighting outside: on the Carpathian passes, in the streets of Silesian towns, by the lakes of East Prussia. And it is doing well. It's time to see who we are judging on real people and current actions but not on old tales, or legends or Dostoevsky books. The Red Army is not an epic hero, it's a modern army. It can defend its Fatherland not only in its own terrain but also outside. There has been a lot of unclaritiues in our history for the the rest of the world. Foreigners were amazed by Peter I, the Decembrists, Tolstoy, now they are amazed with our victories. As if the world had overslept our progress: it did not see us developing skills of writing, building and fighting. Now we neither rely on audacity of Cossacks, nor on talents of some commander, selfless humility of old soldier. No, we have developed fighting skills. We don't impress housewives with super planes; we operate with attack aircrafts, excellent artillery, new tanks that turn “Tigers” into lambs. Our armies are led by experienced and educated commanders. The Germans accepted the art of war as a privilege of their caste. However talents are not titles and gout to be inherited. The sons of the German generals do become generals. However this fact alone does not make the latter to be into warcraft. Our commanders have learnt the military science themselves. They got the stars on their shoulder straps on their own and never took the ones of their dads. We are winning due to our own talents and skills.

The soldier of the tsarist army was brave, he loved his country, but he had a vague idea of the world. Any Red Army soldier knows why he is fighting and what he is fighting for. He is a citizen in a soldier's greatcoat. He is one of the masters of his state, who obeys the orders of the chief not because the chief has blue blood, but because he understands the justice of military discipline. Some smart foreign guys assume that the Red Army is winning due to inherent qualities of the Russian soldiers. Nonetheless, we have the right to object: you are praising the tsarist army as you do not like October revolution. The Red Army has occupied Tannenberg in East Prussia. The defeat of the tsarist army is associated with this place. We keep winning in the area, where the arrogant and stupid tsarist generals were powerless and their soldiers were dying bravely and submissively, We don't mind if foreigners talk lovingly about old Russia. Let them remember the Soviet Union with respect and reverence, if not with delight.

We set out on that last journey. We were thinking about it silently at sad soldier camps for three long years… endlessly long years. Swedish newspapers report that Hitler is now exerting all his strength to stop us. The Fuhrer has mobilized even the former German ambassador in Budapest, von Jagow, and allegedly sent him to the front as an ordinary soldier. Well, we'll cope with this ambassador as well. Of course, there are terrible battles ahead, but when we are being in Oppeln and Morungen the situation seems to be easier and simpler. Stalin is leading the Great Offensive. At this hard time he said that every dog had its day. Stalin definitely saw an arrow piercing the heart of East Prussia, our breakthrough to the Oder, and a lot of different streets — from Oppeln to Berlin. We have already been walking along ones of Oppeln. We will stroll along the streets of Berlin.

January 26, 1945