Who are PJs during the war? “Field wives” in the Red Army: sex to survive

During the war, Soviet marshals and officers, separated from their families, found solace in the arms of female military personnel. In peaceful life they would be called mistresses, but in war they were reduced to PPZh of field wives,” writes Vladimir Ginda in the section Archive in issue 10 of the magazine Correspondent dated March 15, 2013.
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The failures of the first stage of the war forced the Soviet leadership to use all possible human resources. Moreover, one of them - young women - on the wave of patriotic upsurge, himself en masse sought to join the ranks of the defenders of the homeland.

Many got the chance to contribute to the victory - during the war, 800 thousand women served in the ranks of the Red Army. Even exclusively female units were created - three air regiments, one of which, the night bomber, became famous as the “night witches”. Soviet female snipers also gained fame.

However, most of the fair sex military personnel did not go through the war with weapons in their hands - they were doctors, nurses, telephone operators, and radio operators.

The front-line love story, as a rule, was short - if not death, then separation after the war

Separated from home, surrounded by many temporarily single men, women with striking appearance faced increased attention from their colleagues. Particularly persistent were commanders of various ranks who, unlike soldiers, had the opportunity to “make love” in relatively comfortable conditions - in separate dugouts and dugouts.

Whether out of love or convenience, some women entered into long-term relationships with these “knights” in uniform. This is how the so-called field wives (PPW) appeared at the front. Even individual representatives of the high Soviet command had similar “wives.”

The front-line love story, as a rule, was short - if not death, then separation after the war. Although some PPZh still became the legal spouses of “combat” comrades.

“In his personal life, a man often found such strength and spiritual values ​​that forever separated him from his previous family, from his children. How many such tragedies have passed before my eyes!” - wrote in her memoirs the famous opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya, who survived the siege of Leningrad and at the age of 16 went to serve in the air defense forces.

Marshall love

However, the phenomenon of PPV itself was not widespread. But it remains in the memory of many, especially when it comes to the memories of ordinary soldiers who fed lice in the trenches. For them, the romances that the command had in front-line conditions were something beyond the pale.

The memoirs of Nikolai Posylaev, a war veteran, look characteristic. Having previously apologized to all the front-line soldiers, he expressed the following thought in one of his interviews: “As a rule, women, once at the front, quickly became the mistresses of officers. How could it be otherwise: if a woman is on her own, there will be no end to harassment. It’s another matter when in the presence of someone... Almost all officers had field wives.”

There is little truth in Posylaev’s words: not all officers had PPV. More often, representatives of the high command - generals and marshals - were guilty of this.

As a rule, women, once at the front, quickly became the mistresses of officers.

For example, the famous collaborator General Andrei Vlasov, who created the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) under the wing of the Nazis, had two PPZhs before going over to the enemy’s side.

The first is military doctor Agnessa Podmazenko, whom Vlasov was even going to marry. It was she who helped the general in 1941 get out of his first encirclement - the Kyiv cauldron.

Moving along with Vlasov along the German rear to connect with her own people, the “wife” scouted the road, obtained food and clothing from local residents. This epic lasted for two and a half months until the couple caught up with the Red Army near Kursk.

Waralbum.ru
800 thousand women fought in the ranks of the Red Army. They literally and figuratively became fighting friends

Podmazenko stayed with Vlasov until January 1942, and then the general sent his pregnant girlfriend to the rear. There, the military doctor gave birth to a son, whom she named Andrei. Subsequently, Pomazenko was given five years - “for communication with a traitor to the motherland.” However, Vlasov’s legal wife was no more fortunate: “for her husband” she received a longer sentence - eight years.

Vlasov, having barely sent Pomazenko to the rear, found a replacement for her in the person of the cook Maria Voronova. In July 1942, he was again surrounded, and again, as a year earlier near Kiev, he went to meet his own people in the company of PPZh. However, he was eventually captured and went into service with the Germans. His companion was sent to the camp, from where Voronova fled.

The cook got to Riga, found out that her general was in Berlin, and went there. Having arrived in the capital of the Third Reich, she became convinced that Vlasov did not need her: the leader of the ROA at that time was courting Agenheld Biedenberg, the sister of the personal adjutant of the Reich Minister of Internal Affairs Heinrich Himmler.

Although not only traitors to the motherland were loving - the marshals of victory also had affairs.

The front-line sweetheart of Marshal Georgy Zhukov was called Lydia Zakharova, she was a nurse. They did not hide their relationship, despite the fact that the military leader had already been living in a civil marriage with Alexandra Zuikova for two decades.

The front-line sweetheart of Marshal Georgy Zhukov was called Lydia Zakharova, she was a nurse

The romance between the famous commander and the nurse lasted from the autumn of 1941 to 1948. The couple broke up after the marshal found a new love - military doctor Galina Semenova, who was 30 years younger than Zhukov and later became his second and last legal wife. True, he did not forget about his previous PPZh and helped Zakharova, who had married by that time, get an apartment in Moscow.

Another famous Soviet commander, Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, met his PPZh doctor Galina Talanova near Moscow in the first year of the war. Talanova, running past, did not put her hand to her cap in an army salute, and the marshal made a playful remark to her: “Why don’t you, comrade officer, salute?!”

With this phrase their romance began. Rokossovsky went through the entire war with PPZh, although his wife and little daughter were waiting for the marshal at home. In 1945, in Poland, Talanova gave birth to a daughter from Rokossovsky, who was named Nadezhda. The commander did not abandon the child and gave him his last name, but after the war he returned to his legal wife.

Baptism of fire

Usually, ordinary soldiers and commanders treated the PPZH with contempt, made up vulgar jokes about them, and composed obscene ditties. The blame for such a neglectful attitude partly lay with the “owners” of the PPZh themselves. After all, these men, possessing great power, created conditions for their mistresses that were very comfortable by front-line standards: the “wives,” while serving in military positions, often lived at headquarters in the rear and had a vague idea of ​​the war.

Moreover, in some cases, at the suggestion of suitors, they even managed to receive government awards. For example, thanks to Zhukov, his beloved Zakharova was awarded an order.

Usually, ordinary soldiers and commanders treated PPZh with contempt, made up vulgar jokes about them, and made up obscene ditties

A funny story about the attitude of front-line soldiers to PPZh was described by Nina Smarkalova, a front-line mortar soldier. One day a regiment commander came to her with his girlfriend and announced that he had brought a new soldier who needed to be shown how mortars fire. Smarkalova decided to make fun of the “new recruit.” To do this, she brought the mortar crew along with the regiment commander's PPZh into the field. It was April and the ground was wet. If you fire a mortar under such conditions, fountains of dirt fly out from under its base plate.

“I told her [PPZh] to stand exactly in the place where all this would fly, and commanded: “Rapid fire!” - recalled Smarkalova. “She didn’t know that she needed to cover her hair, her face, her shape. I fired three shots.”

Smarkalova thought that after such a “baptism of fire” the regiment commander would send her to the guardhouse, but nothing happened.

What is life

At the front, a woman, especially if she was attractive, required courage not to become the mistress of some commander. After all, gentlemen were swarming around, many of whom were far from gentlemen. In such a situation, there were two ways of salvation - either constant communication with superiors, or one’s own determination.

Maria Fridman, who served in the intelligence service of the First Division of the NKVD, recalled how she had to fight with fellow male soldiers. “If you don’t hit me in the teeth, you’ll be lost! In the end, the scouts themselves began to protect me from “foreign” fans: if no one, then no one,” said Friedman.

Ekaterina Romanovskaya, who went through the war as a simple signal operator, spoke in her book about how difficult it was to resist. She was the first among female veterans to openly describe the life of girls at the front: from battles to sexual harassment and love.

Romanovskaya turned out to be the object of the claims of the elderly division commander. In order to get the girl into bed, he ordered that a young signalman be on duty at night at the telephone in his dugout. On one of her shifts, a laid table awaited her.

TsGKFFA of Ukraine named after. G.S. Pshenichny
Marshal Rodion Malinovsky (left) met his future wife Raisa Kurchenko (pictured on the right) at the front in 1943 and, to begin with, made her a table attendant. And he took him as his wife after the war

“Half a liter of cognac appeared in a crystal decanter, fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, lard, a can of canned fish and two cutlery,” writes Romanovskaya. At that time, near Stalingrad, where the events described took place, the Red Army soldiers were starving, and here there were such dishes.

After the fourth glass, the division commander invited the girl to become his PPZh. He promised to dress, feed, drive and, where possible, introduce him as his wife. Romanovskaya refused the colonel, who was 22 years older than her, answering that she had gone to the front to fight, not to have affairs.

The division commander retreated. However, he subsequently asked Romanovskaya to marry him. Having been turned away here too, the colonel became angry and unsuccessfully tried to take her by force. And then he started doing mischief. Romanovskaya had a romantic relationship with the captain of a neighboring regiment, and when the colonel found out about this, he sent the signalman to an assault company, from where rarely anyone returned alive. And the opponent, under pressure from the division commander, was transferred to another unit.

The hungry soldiers had no time for women, but the authorities got their way by any means, from rude pressure to the most sophisticated courtship

Nikolai Nikulin, an art critic and former private artilleryman, the author of piercing memoirs, wrote: “The hungry soldiers had no time for women, but the authorities got their way by any means, from brutal pressure to the most sophisticated courtship. Among the gentlemen there were Romeos for every taste: to sing, to dance, to talk beautifully, and for the experienced - to read [Alexander] Blok or [Mikhail] Lermontov.”

The result of such courtship, as a rule, is pregnancy and being sent to the rear, which in the language of military offices was called “a trip by order of 009.” This order, according to Nikulin’s stories, was popular. So, in his unit, out of 50 women who arrived in 1942, only two remained until the end of the war.

True, by order of 009, not only pregnant women left - often pregnancy was the result of real feelings. Moreover, at the front they worsened. This is what Nina Vishnevskaya, the medical instructor of the tank battalion, said about it. One day, she and her unit were surrounded.

“We are already deciding: we will either break through at night or die. We thought that we would most likely die. We were sitting, waiting for the night to make an attempt to break through, and the lieutenant, he was 19 years old, no more, said: “Have you even tried?” - "No". - “And I haven’t tried it yet either. You’ll die and won’t know what love is.”

The veteran medical instructor emphasized that this was the worst thing - not that you would be killed, but that you would die without knowing the fullness of life. “We went to die for life, not yet knowing what life was,” Vishnevskaya recalled.

This material was published in No. 10 of the Korrespondent magazine dated March 15, 2013. Reproduction of Korrespondent magazine publications in full is prohibited. The rules for using materials from the Korrespondent magazine published on the Korrespondent.net website can be found .

Field wives were the name given to girlfriends at the front during the Great Patriotic War. Generals and officers of the Red Army, separated from their families, took “civil wives” from among the female military personnel. Doctors, nurses, telephone operators and radio operators with an attractive appearance faced increased attention from their male colleagues. Commanders of different ranks courted with particular persistence. The officers, unlike ordinary soldiers, could afford to “have an affair.”

Campaign wives began relationships with officers out of love or convenience. Even some representatives of the high command had such concubines. For example, Marshal Zhukov appointed his fighting friend as a personal nurse and awarded him many awards. They went through the entire war together. Before going over to the enemy’s side, General Vlasov had two field wives: military doctor Agnessa Podmazenko and cook Maria Voronova. Podmazenko even became pregnant by Vlasov, and the general sent her to the rear to give birth. She bore him a son and received 5 years in the camps “for communication with a traitor to the motherland.” The presence of military wives at the front was marked by the following events: - hatred of legitimate wives from the rear for front-line girlfriends; - contempt of ordinary soldiers; - fear of “exile” to a hot spot and a tribunal. A woman who became pregnant lost her certificate. For ordinary nurses, this meant disaster. The front-line love story was often temporary. It ended in death or separation after the end of the war. Only a few field wives managed to register their relationships with their “combat” comrades. Despite the presence of a legal wife in the rear, Red Army officers entered into relationships with temporary cohabitants. At the same time, many tried not to make such situations widely public or assign it the status of moral turpitude. It is interesting that Marshal Zhukov took decisive action in the fight against the moral decay of soldiers and issued an order to remove almost all women from headquarters and command posts.

"TOP SECRET. Order to the troops of the Leningrad Front No. 0055 mountains. Leningrad September 22, 1941 At the headquarters and command posts of division and regiment commanders there are many women under the guise of serving, seconded, etc. A number of commanders, having lost the face of the communists, are simply cohabiting... I order: Under the responsibility of the Military Councils of armies, commanders and commissars of individual units to On September 23, 1941, remove all women from headquarters and command posts. A limited number of typists will be left only in agreement with the Special Department. The execution will be reported on September 24, 1941. Signed: Commander of the Leningrad Front, Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Zhukov.”

The famous Soviet poet Simonov, in his poem “Lyrical,” called military wives comforters:

Men say: war...
And the women are hastily hugged.
Thank you for making it so easy
Without demanding to be called dear,
The other one, the one that is far away,
They hastily replaced it.
She's the lover of strangers
Here I regretted it as best I could,
In an unkind hour, she warmed them
The warmth of an unkind body.

For such a work he was almost deprived of his party card.

There were no legal regulators of relations between military personnel of different sexes, writes Colonel of Justice Vyacheslav Zvyagintsev. Cohabitation in military groups was often classified as domestic corruption and ended with the imposition of disciplinary and party sanctions on the perpetrators or condemnation by an officer's court of honor. But in the archives of the military judicial department there remained a trace of more complex conflicts between men and women that unfolded during wartime. Up to and including prosecution. For example, the report of the chairman of the military tribunal of the Northern Front gives the following example. The commander of the 3rd platoon of the guard searchlight battalion, senior lieutenant E.G. Baranov, who cohabited with a female Red Army soldier Sh., and apparently caused her a scene of jealousy, accompanied by a beating, was accused by the investigative authorities under Art. Art. 74 part 2, 193-17 paragraph "e" and 193-2 paragraph "d" of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. The military tribunal of the 82nd division terminated the case at the preparatory hearing only because Baranov had by that time entered into a legal marriage with Sh.

The crew of the boat minesweeper of the Volga Flotilla (from left to right): Red Navy men A. Shchebalina, V. Chapova, foreman 2nd class T. Kupriyanova, Red Navy men V. Ukhova, A. Tarasova. 1943 Photo courtesy of the author

Most often, we published laudatory materials about the role of women in the Great Patriotic War, and since 1990, denigrating materials. In any case, I personally have not come across a single competent and objective study. Although for the most part our women soldiers honestly fulfilled their military duty. But men from great commanders to journalists and party functionaries intensively compromised them. But it is very easy to discredit even the best soldier or commander by attributing undeserved successes.

A WOMAN ON A SHIP IS NOT ALWAYS UNHAPPY

From an early age I have been offended when, in anniversary photographs of Black Sea sailors, the first row is occupied by respectable ladies. Alas, there have never been women on the crews of ships of the Black Sea Fleet. But in the Caspian and Volga everything was different. In 1941, 67 women were accepted into the Kaspflot teams, in 1942 - 44, and in 1943 - 129. These were mainly the wives of sailors and people from families of sailors. For them, the difficulties of sea life were not new, and they boldly went to work as sailors, stokers and machinists. In Kaspflot during the war, Slovokhotova and Rapoport rose to the post of assistant captain, Savitskaya, Koloday, Izmailova and Kozlova became Komsomol navigators.

Most women served in the Reidtanker. During 1942–1943, the shipping company accepted 260 women into its ships as rank and file and 85 women into command positions.

But hundreds of photos of rear Black Sea ladies were published, but I didn’t see sailors from the Caspian Sea. In the Volga military flotilla there were minesweeper boats, the crews of which consisted only of women. Many hundreds of women served on transport ships of the river flotillas of the North from Pechora to Kolyma and Indigirka. But for some reason almost no one writes about them.

According to the order of the People's Commissariat of Defense No. 0099 of October 8, 1941, three women's air regiments were formed: the 586th fighter on the Yak-1, the 587th bomber on the Pe-2 (since 1943 - the 125th Guards) and the 588th night light bomber on the U-2 (on February 8, 1943, transformed into the 46th Guards Taman Regiment).

Needless to say, poorly fighting units never became guards units.

Nevertheless, in 2005, a book appeared in which a certain “sweet couple” claimed that orders in the 46th Guards Regiment were “given through bed.”

The best answer can be the number of combat missions of the female pilots of the 46th regiment who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Senior Lieutenant R.E. Aronova – 960; senior lieutenant E.A. Zhigulenko – 968; senior lieutenant N.F. Meklina – 980; senior lieutenant E.V. Ryabova – 890; senior lieutenant N.F. Sebrova - 1004 flights. For comparison: three times the heroes Kozhedub and Pokryshkin made 330 and 650 sorties, respectively. Of course, fighter pilots have their own specifics. But, in my opinion, female pilots who have completed 800–1000 combat missions deserve even greater awards.

But about whom were numerous obscene ditties sung in the rear and at the front? The answer is simple - about the so-called PPZH, that is, field wives.

LOST TEAM FACE

PPZh in 1941–1945 became the norm in the Red Army. I foresee the indignation of the “leavened patriots” - this is, they say, slander! Well, let’s remember September 1941. The enemy is rushing towards Moscow and Leningrad, and the commander of the Leningrad Front, Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, is very concerned about the spread of PPV.

"Top secret.

Order to the troops of the Leningrad Front No. 0055

At the headquarters and command posts of division and regiment commanders there are many women under the guise of serving, seconded, etc. A number of commanders, having lost the face of the communists, simply cohabitate...

I order:

It is under the responsibility of the Military Councils of the armies, commanders and commissars of individual units to remove all women from headquarters and command posts by 09/23/41. A limited number of typists will be left only in agreement with the Special Department.”

It is curious that Comrade Zhukov himself in the fall of 1941 had a PPZ - Lydia Vladimirovna Zakharova (military rank - senior lieutenant, position - Zhukov’s personal nurse). Throughout the war she relentlessly followed him. Zhukov awarded her the rank of senior lieutenant, although the nurse was not entitled to an officer rank. She was awarded 10 military orders, including the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star.

However, Zhukov’s actions did not fall under his orders. It was precisely stated there who was entitled to have PPV and who was not. The order spoke about the command posts of division commanders and below. Consequently, commanders of corps, armies and fronts were not prohibited by order from having PPZh.

But did PPZh appear in the Red Army in 1941? The answer is no.

HISTORICAL HERITAGE

Almost all famous commanders of the Middle Ages and Modern times had one or more PPZh. The same Peter the Great had several dozen of them.

The most famous PPZh of the early 19th century was Maria Valevskaya, the wife of the 70-year-old chamberlain Anestasiy Valevsky.

Most historians are sure that on January 17, 1807, Polish magnates literally slipped 21-year-old Maria to Emperor Napoleon. The romance, with long interruptions, lasted until June 28, 1815.

Napoleon did not hide his PPV, and in the army she was openly called the “Polish wife of the emperor.” Nevertheless, the hopes of the lords were not justified; Marysya had no influence on Napoleon’s politics or military plans.

Well, while Napoleon was amusing himself with the chamberlain Marysia, his future enemy Kutuzov was amusing himself in Bucharest with the 14-year-old noblewoman Alexandra (Luxandra) Guliano. Of course, Mikhailo Illarionovich did not know that in 2003 the wise Duma members would increase the “age of consent” from 14 to 16 years. I note that the father of the beautiful Alexandra, the Wallachian boyar Konstantin Filipesko, was clearly no slouch. Since 1806, there was a war between Russia and Turkey, and the boyar slipped his 11-year-old daughter to the corps commander, General Mikhail Miloradovich. The brave little Russian became interested in Alexandra and even promised to marry.

On this occasion, General Bagration on December 29, 1809 dashed off a slander to the Minister of War Arakcheev: “... He shouted and wrote - I will give an example to everyone to serve and obey, etc., in fact it turned out that he did not want to part with Mamzel Filipesko, in whom he ears in love. His love is with him, let him have fun, but her father is our first enemy, and he plays the first role in all of Wallachia... Our friend is madly in love, and there is no way to get along with him.”

Apparently, the letter had the desired effect, and in April 1810 Miloradovich was removed from the active army and sent to serve as governor in Kyiv. Well, 13-year-old Luxandra was urgently married to the boyar Nicolae Guliano.

On April 1, 1811, Kutuzov arrived in Bucharest and took command of the Danube Army. The gentlemen boyars took advantage of the opportunity and introduced Mikhail Illarionovich to Luxandra. Nicolae Guliano, of course, did not object.

As an eyewitness, a Frenchman in the Russian service Langeron, wrote: “Kutuzov really liked her, and he, knowing Wallachian customs well, ordered her husband to bring her to him, which he did. The next day, Kutuzov introduced his beloved to us and introduced her to society.”

Luxandra started something like a sovereign court under the commander-in-chief, organized balls and parties. And her husband began supplying the Russian army with fodder. Well, the Russian troops, thanks to the competent command of Kutuzov, crushed the Turks, as they say, “on foreign territory and with little loss of life.” On October 25, 1811, 12 thousand Turks, dying of hunger, surrendered on the banks of the Danube near Ruschuk; 2 thousand human and 8 thousand horse corpses were found in the Turkish camp.

Napoleon's diplomats tried their best to force the Sultan to continue the war. But hunger and, let’s not lie, the huge bribes given by Kutuzov to the Turkish pashas played their role. On May 16, 1812, Türkiye ratified the Treaty of Bucharest. According to this agreement, Russia included the area between the Prut and Dniester rivers, that is, Bessarabia with the fortresses of Khotin, Bendery, Akkerman, Kilia and Izmail.

Thus, Kutuzov inflicted the first defeat on Napoleon five weeks before the crossing of the Berezina by the Great Army, lying on the sofa with 14-year-old Luxandra.

CIVIL HEROINES

Larisa Reisner. Photo from 1920

All the heroes of the Civil War had PPZ, including Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Vasily Chapaev, etc. The three most famous to us are the three PPJs, which have been included in dozens of books, films and performances.

Thus, in the TV series “His Excellency’s Adjutant”, released in 1969, Tanya Shchukina (Tatyana Ivanitskaya) was introduced as the girlfriend of the Soviet intelligence officer Koltsov (played by Yuri Solomin). Moreover, their relationship was purely platonic.

In fact, the commander of the Volunteer Army, Lieutenant General Mai-Maevsky, and his gallant adjutant Pavel Makarov had the Zhmudsky sisters from the family of a wealthy Kharkov businessman as their PPZ. After spending time with the sisters, the drunken general and adjutant often drove to the front line in a car and roused the soldiers into a psychic attack. Always successful and always without a single scratch.

Later, the Zhmudsky sisters left for Belgium, and from there to the USA. Wrangel expelled Mai-Maevsky from the army, and sent Makarov to jail. The brave adjutant fled. Until mid-November 1920, he was a partisan in the army of A. Mokrousov in the Crimean Mountains. Well, 20 years later he was doing the same thing under the command of the same Mokrousov, but not against Baron Wrangel, but against Colonel General Manstein.

In the 1930s–1960s, two dozen films and plays were released in the USSR, where the main character was a female commissar in a leather jacket and with a Mauser. Alas, her prototype Larisa Reisner preferred the most expensive fur coats, dresses and diamond jewelry, and an elegant Browning to a Mauser.

In 1916, 21-year-old Larisa began a whirlwind romance with the poet Gumilev. Well, in August 1918 in Sviyazhsk she became the mistress of Trotsky himself. Lev Davydovich publicly called her “the Valkyrie of the revolution with the appearance of an ancient goddess.” Larisa and Lev corresponded at least until 1922.

Leaving Sviyazhsk, Trotsky handed Larisa over to Fyodor Raskolnikov, whom he made commander of the Volga Flotilla. Larisa went to serve in the political department of the flotilla and occupied the cabin of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on the royal river yacht “Mezhen”.

On the Mezheni, Reisner escorted the flotilla to Astrakhan, and then Reisner, according to the plan, was supposed to go along the Caspian Sea to Petrovsk on the Kursk transport, together with the political council of the Volga-Caspian Flotilla subordinate to her. But Lyalya loved the exotic and decided to go on the destroyer “Deyatelny”. The commander of the destroyer Isakov was summoned to the Reisner mansion, to whom Lyalya capriciously declared: “That’s it, captain! I decided to go to Petrovsk with you on the destroyer!”

However, the midshipman resolutely refused for a very good reason: “There is one point in the latrine of the officer’s compartment.” So Lyala had to go to Petrovsk on the Kursk.

In June 1920, Trotsky appointed Raskolnikov commander of the Baltic Fleet. From Astrakhan to Petrograd it takes two days by train. But Fedya and Lyalya traveled for a whole month to Yaroslavl on the yacht “Mezhen”.

In Kronstadt, Lyalya took up several positions in the political department of the Baltic Fleet. Reisner's toilets were not just beautiful, but defiantly luxurious. When famine reigned in Petrograd in 1919, one of Larisa’s acquaintances met her “twenty-two years old, perfumed and dressed up, coquettishly calling herself “komorsi” - the commander of the naval forces. The fur coat is blue, the dress is lilac, the kid glove smells of Guerlain’s “Folle Aroma.”

At the New Year's ball at the House of Arts in 1921, Reisner appeared in a super-original ballgown. It turned out that the outfit was made according to the drawings of Leon Bakst for the ballet “Carnival” to the music of Schumann. On the instructions of Larisa Mikhailovna, the dress was confiscated from the costume departments of the Mariinsky Theater.

The poet Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky recalled that when he came to Larisa Reisner in the apartment of the former naval minister Grigorovich, which she occupied, he was amazed by the abundance of objects and utensils - carpets, paintings, exotic fabrics, bronze Buddhas, majolica dishes, English books, bottles with French perfume.

The political department of the Baltic Fleet ordered the creation of a theater named after Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov abandoned all official affairs and began promoting Trotsky’s ideas in the navy, and in every possible way discredited the party leaders who were opponents of Lev Davydovich. Larisa and her father, Professor Mikhail Reisner, actively helped him in this.

As a result, the Revolutionary Military Council had to remove Fedya and Lyalya from Kronstadt. And on time. A few days later, the Kronstadt rebellion began, to the emergence of which Raskolnikov and Reisner made a significant contribution.

Well, the third PPJ who entered literature and cinema was Nina Nechvolodova. At the end of 1919, the 20-year-old “junker Nechvolodov” became an orderly of the white general Yakov Slashchev. In March 1920, the Reds tried to break into Crimea through Perekop. On March 22, Lieutenant General Slashchev led 300 cadets of the Konstantinovsky School on the Chongarsky Bridge in a psychic attack. Next to the general was “cadet Nechvolodov.” The cadets went on the attack in tight formation, in step with the orchestra. Nechvolodov was wounded, but did not leave the line. The Reds fled.

Jealous of Slashchev's successes, Wrangel kicked him out of the army. At the end of November 1921, Slashchev and Nina returned to the USSR. The general was appointed to command the Shot course, and Nina led the theater created during the course. Through the theater, Nechvolodova met Mikhail Bulgakov and his wife.

In 1925, the Red Cinema association made the film Wrangel. In it, Slashchev was a consultant, and together with Nina they played themselves in the film. On January 11, 1929, Slashchev was killed in his apartment by the Trotskyist Lazar Kollenberg.

It is unknown what Nina's future fate was. In any case, I found out that in 1937 the feature film “Youth” was released, which told about the events of 1920 in Crimea. The author of the film's script was Nina Nechvolodova.

Well, in 1970 the film “Running” was released, based on the work of Mikhail Bulgakov. Bulgakov was unable to embody the features of Slashchev in one image and presented him in two generals - a graduate of the General Staff Academy Khludov and the desperate grunt and drunkard General Chernota. Well, Nina Nechvolodova became the prototype of Lyuska, the traveling wife of General Chernota.

NO PUNISHMENT FOLLOWED

Since June 1941, PPZH have become the norm for the majority of Red Army command personnel. After the war, approximately half of the generals and marshals returned from the PPZH to their legal spouses, such as Marshal Malinovsky from Raisa Galperina, Marshal Rokossovsky from Galina Talanova, Marshal Zhukov from Lydia Zakharova, etc. Well, the other half of the commanders entered into a legal marriage with the PPZh. Thus, Marshal Katukov married Ekaterina Lebedeva, General Batov married Nina, whom he called Vasilko (for unknown reasons, her maiden name does not appear in numerous materials dedicated to her and the general).

However, even the abandoned PPZh did not remain unprofitable. Many illegitimate children received the surnames of famous commanders. The chest of all PPZh, without exception, was decorated with an iconostasis of orders and medals. For some reason, father commanders most often gave their mistresses the Order of the Red Star. Maybe because the name of the order rhymed well with another word in ditties?

Any secretary of the provincial regional party committee, after a call from Moscow from the marshal or even his adjutant, was in a hurry to allocate an apartment to the former PPZh. All illegitimate children of generals and marshals made brilliant careers.

None of the top military commanders were punished for their connection with one or even several PPZh. Let us recall once again Zhukov’s order, in which punishment was to be carried out up to and including the division commander. The story of complaints against Marshal Rokossovsky, who abused his connections with ladies, is widely known, not only with the “sparrow” Galina Talanova, but also with many others, including the artist Valentina Serova. When asked what to do with the marshal, Stalin replied: “We will envy Comrade Rokossovsky.”

As far as I know, of all the PPZh, only two mistresses of Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov were unlucky. The first PPZh - military doctor Agnessa Podmazenko - became pregnant and in January 1942 was sent to the rear. There she gave birth to a son, Andrei, but soon received a 5-year sentence “for having an affair with a traitor to the Motherland.” It is curious that the legal wife Anna Mikhailovna Vlasova received 8 years of imprisonment!

The second PPZh - cook Maria Voronova - was captured along with Vlasov. The Germans sent her to a concentration camp. Maria fled from there and tried to contact Vlasov, but he was already flirting with Agenheld Bindenberg, the sister of Himmler’s adjutant.

As we can see, PPVs have a long history, and, naturally, the question arises: is it necessary to fight them? Why, in civilian life, can an engineer or businessman live in a civil marriage for decades and punch anyone in the face who intrudes into his personal life? But an officer cannot live in a service apartment with a civilian wife in a military town, and any boss who has at least a dozen mistresses has the right to demand that the officer “legalize his relationship.”

Is legal marriage always good for the officer and for the combat effectiveness of the unit? A typical example: in mid-November 1990, the 57th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment was redeployed to Norilsk from the Besovets airfield near Petrozavodsk. This flight “caused protests and appeals to the authorities and the media by wives of military personnel.” And in 2014, the reluctance of pilots to redeploy to circumpolar airfields was primarily due to the opinion of their wives.

The fighter regiment consists of only 30 pilots. The state will not become poorer if pilots in Tiksi and Belushaya Guba receive double pay and a year or two of service. In a military camp near the airfield, it is worth placing fifty young female military personnel (radar operators, electrical engineers, signalmen, canteen staff, etc.). Rhetorical question: can a qualified pilot serve for three years at this airfield without the Bolshoi Theater and “cackling hens”?

Well, as for favoritism and corruption in the army, then legal wives always give a head start to the PPJ. So, in my opinion, both categories of officers’ wives should have equal rights, and their status should be determined by the officer himself and no one else. Moreover, the activities of both should not reduce the combat effectiveness of the military unit. No one is allowed to start a nightly scandal over socks thrown on the floor or a conversation with the barmaid to a missile officer taking up combat duty, or an interceptor pilot on the eve of a flight.

Well, all awards to legal wives and PWs or their appointments to economic positions related to the distribution of material assets should be checked three times by all authorities in comparison with ordinary women.

Podmazenko stayed with Vlasov until January 1942, and then the general sent his pregnant girlfriend to the rear. There, the military doctor gave birth to a son, whom she named Andrei. Subsequently, Pomazenko was given five years - “for communication with a traitor to the motherland.” However, Vlasov’s legal wife was no more fortunate: “for her husband” she received a longer sentence - eight years.
Vlasov, having barely sent Pomazenko to the rear, found a replacement for her in the person of the cook Maria Voronova. In July 1942, he was again surrounded, and again, as a year earlier near Kiev, he went to meet his own people in the company of PPZh. However, he was eventually captured and went into service with the Germans. His companion was sent to the camp, from where Voronova fled.
The cook got to Riga, found out that her general was in Berlin, and went there. Having arrived in the capital of the Third Reich, she became convinced that Vlasov did not need her: the leader of the ROA at that time was courting Agenheld Biedenberg, the sister of the personal adjutant of the Reich Minister of Internal Affairs Heinrich Himmler.
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A funny story about the attitude of front-line soldiers to PPZh was described by Nina Smarkalova, a front-line mortar soldier. One day a regiment commander came to her with his girlfriend and announced that he had brought a new soldier who needed to be shown how mortars fire.
Smarkalova decided to play a joke on the “new recruit.” To do this, she brought the mortar crew along with the regiment commander's PPZh into the field. It was April and the ground was wet. If you fire a mortar under such conditions, fountains of dirt fly out from under its base plate.
“I told her (PPZh) to stand exactly in the place where all this would fly, and commanded: “Rapid fire!” Smarkalova recalled. “She didn’t know that she needed to cover her hair, her face, her uniform. I gave three shots.”
Smarkalova thought that after such a “baptism of fire” the regiment commander would send her to the guardhouse, but nothing happened.
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Maria Fridman, who served in the intelligence service of the First Division of the NKVD, recalled how she had to fight with fellow male soldiers. “If you don’t hit me in the teeth, you’ll be lost! In the end, the scouts themselves began to protect me from “alien” fans: if no one, then no one,” said Friedman.
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Ekaterina Romanovskaya, who went through the war as a simple signal operator, spoke in her book about how difficult it was to resist. She was the first among female veterans to openly describe the life of girls at the front: from battles to sexual harassment and love.
Romanovskaya turned out to be the object of the claims of the elderly division commander. In order to get the girl into bed, he ordered that a young signalman be on duty at night at the telephone in his dugout. On one of her shifts, a laid table awaited her.
“Half a liter of cognac appeared in a crystal decanter, fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, lard, a can of canned fish and two cutlery,” writes Romanovskaya. At that time, near Stalingrad, where the events described took place, the Red Army soldiers were starving, and here there were such dishes.
After the fourth glass, the division commander invited the girl to become his PPZh. He promised to dress, feed, drive and, where possible, introduce him as his wife. Romanovskaya refused the colonel, who was 22 years older than her, answering that she had gone to the front to fight, not to have affairs.
The division commander retreated. However, he subsequently asked Romanovskaya to marry him. Having been turned away here too, the colonel became angry and unsuccessfully tried to take her by force. And then he started doing mischief.
Romanovskaya had a romantic relationship with the captain of a neighboring regiment, and when the colonel found out about this, he sent the signalman to an assault company, from where rarely anyone returned alive. And the opponent, under pressure from the division commander, was transferred to another unit.
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The result of such courtship, as a rule, is pregnancy and being sent to the rear, which in the language of military offices was called “a trip by order of 009.” True, by order of 009, not only pregnant women left - often pregnancy was the result of real feelings. Moreover, at the front they worsened.
This is what Nina Vishnevskaya, the medical instructor of the tank battalion, said about it. One day, she and her unit were surrounded.
“We are already deciding: either we will break through at night, or we will die. We thought that, most likely, we would die. We were sitting, waiting for the night to make an attempt to break through, and the lieutenant, he was no more than 19 years old, said: “Have you even tried? ". - "No." - "And I haven't tried it yet either. You’ll die and won’t know what love is.”
The veteran medical instructor emphasized that this was the worst thing - not that you would be killed, but that you would die without knowing the fullness of life. “We went to die for life, not yet knowing what life was,” Vishnevskaya recalled.
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Interesting oral memories and reflections of participants in the Great Patriotic War are given by B. Schneider. The author interviewed respondents on the question of the attitude of Soviet soldiers during the war to sex. As a result, he received a number of unexpected, even discouraging answers.
Vasil Bykov answered the question as follows:
“On the front line, people had no time for this at all. For example, I never thought further than until the evening. I only dreamed of surviving until darkness, when the battle subsided. After that, I could take a breath, relax. At such hours I just wanted to sleep, Even hunger was not felt that way - just to forget... I think that for the most part the soldiers were so depressed that even in a calmer environment they did not remember the women.
And then, in the infantry there were very young fighters. Those who were older, who were 25-30 years old, who already had a family and some kind of profession, ended up as tank crews or got jobs as drivers, in the kitchen, as orderlies, as shoemakers and could stay in the rear. And seventeen and eighteen year olds were given guns and sent into the infantry.
These young people, yesterday's schoolchildren, have not yet reached the age when a person wants and can live an active sex life. Millions of them died without ever knowing a woman, and some without even experiencing the joy of their first kiss.”
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Viktor Nekrasov, author of the story “In the Trenches of Stalingrad,” noted during an interview that “in the German army, no matter what it was, soldiers regularly received leave; there were also brothels there, so soldiers had somewhere to relax and make love. for us - no furloughs, no brothels.
The officers lived with nurses and signalmen, and the privates could only masturbate. In this regard, it was also very difficult for the Soviet soldier."
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General M.P. Korabelnikov, Doctor of Psychology, said:
“When I joined the army, I was not yet twenty and I still didn’t love anyone - then people grew up later. I devoted all my time to study and until September 1942 I didn’t even think about love. And this was typical for all young people of that time Only at twenty-one or twenty-two did feelings awaken.
And besides... it was very difficult during the war. When we began to advance in 1943-1944, women began to be recruited into the army, so cooks, hairdressers, laundresses appeared in each battalion... but there was almost no hope that anyone would pay attention to a simple soldier.”
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However, as B. Schneider notes, he heard the most amazing answer from General Nikolai Antipenko, who during the war was deputy marshals G.K. Zhukov and K.K. Rokossovsky on rear issues.
He reported that in the summer of 1944, two brothels were opened in the Red Army with the consent of the Supreme Command and his direct participation.
It goes without saying that these brothels were called differently - rest houses, although they served precisely this purpose and were intended only for officers. There were a lot of contenders. The experiment, however, ended touchingly - and in a very Russian way.
The first group of officers spent their three-week vacation as planned. But after that, all the officers returned to the front and took all their girlfriends with them. They were no longer recruiting new ones.

Field wives

They loved their homeland

General and PPZh,

They covered with their body

From the fascists in the dugout.

I wasn't afraid during the war

I'm a brave girl.

Throughout the war under the general -

My cause is right.

Wartime ditties

“As a rule, women who went to the front soon became the mistresses of officers,” recalled war veteran I.S. Posylaev. - How could it be otherwise: if a woman is on her own, there will be no end to harassment. It’s a different matter if in front of someone. Almost all officers except the platoon vanka had field wives. He is always with the soldiers, he has no time to make love.”

In the spring of 1942, the political instructor of an artillery battery on the Leningrad Front, Vera Lebedeva, explained to military journalist Pavel Luknitsky:

Unfortunately, in the army I did not meet a single exemplary friendship between a woman and a man, such that you could point your finger and say: they love you! The girls laugh: “The war will write off everything!”, but they laugh artificially, they worry themselves. And when you tell her what she did, she cries.

There are still, of course, people who can be good friends. But it was enough for one person to appear in our military unit who had led the wrong way of life, and the commanders began to treat everyone differently than before.

I often want to talk, laugh, chat. At the beginning of the war I did this, now I don’t do it, because they will say: “Everything is twisting and turning its tail!”

The attitude of commanders towards girls arriving at the front was also sometimes based on objective reality. Yulia Zhukova recalls that when they (graduates of the Central Women's Sniper School in Podolsk - Author) were brought to the reserve regiment of the 31st Army on the border with East Prussia, “we were met by a major, well-fed, rosy-cheeked, dressed in a snow-white sheepskin coat with a raised collar . He walked in front of the line, looking at us critically. “Well,” he asks, “why did you come, to fight or?” The incorrigible foul-mouthed Sasha Khaidukova completed the question for him: “Fuck?” This is the reception we received. Everyone felt offended.”

Nikolai Alexandrov, tank commander:

“Once a trainload of women came to us to replenish us. The corps commander looked: “Send them back, what, should I open maternity hospitals in nine months?!” I didn’t accept it.”

The mechanized corps commander's reasoning about nine months was not at all abstract, especially in relation to girls who were directly among the soldiers. There was indeed more than enough harassment towards them.

A colorful illustration of this can be seen in an excerpt from the memoirs of medical instructor Sofia K-vich, who later became an officer’s field wife and therefore, when talking about her war, asked the writer Svetlana Alexievich not to mention her last name for the sake of her daughter:

“First battalion commander. I didn't love him. He was a good man, but I didn't love him. And I went to his dugout a few months later. Where to go? There are only men around, it’s better to live with one than to be afraid of everyone. It wasn’t as scary during the battle as it was after the battle, especially when we had rest and went away to reorganize. As they shoot, fire, they call: “Sister! Sister!”, and after the fight everyone will guard you. You can't get out of the dugout at night.

Did other girls tell you this or didn’t they admit it? They were ashamed, I think. They remained silent. Proud! And that was it. Because I didn't want to die. It was a shame to die when you were young. And it’s hard for men to go four years without women. There were no brothels in our army, and no pills were given. Somewhere, maybe they were watching this. We do not have. Four years. Commanders could only afford something, but ordinary soldiers could not. Discipline. But they are silent about this. Not accepted.

For example, I was the only woman in the battalion who lived in a common dugout. Together with men. They gave me a place, but what a separate place it is, the whole dugout is six meters. I woke up at night because I was waving my arms, then I would hit one on the cheeks, on the hands, then on the other. I was wounded, ended up in the hospital and waved my hands there. The nanny will wake you up at night: “What are you doing?” Who will you tell?"

It’s another matter if a woman was an officer, served at headquarters, commanded any unit (and this, although rarely, happened. - Author), performed the functions of a political worker, like Vera Lebedeva, or a military doctor, like Barnaul resident Angelina Ostrovskaya, who wrote in March 1943 home from the front: “I now live in a tent, the so-called officer’s tent, it is for four people. Two more doctors and a senior military paramedic, all men, live there. This is not particularly inconvenient, since we sleep without undressing. In general, I don’t like the simplicity of morals here - too many people adhere to the motto “war will write off everything.” Of course, conditions play a big role here. When a person’s life is not valued at all, the question of other, comparatively less significant circumstances of life inevitably disappears. In a word, they live while they live. I personally cannot share this point of view. I don’t think time and circumstances will make me think otherwise.”

In general, private women had to suffer during the war from an overabundance of male attention, and ordinary male soldiers had to suffer from an acute shortage of female attention. Which, of course, was a shame.

“The bosses always lived a little better. Almost everyone had a field wife,” recalled Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Borisov, a native of Kamen-on-Ob. “Our division commander didn’t have one, but all the battalion commanders did.” Each medical instructor served faithfully. When we arrived at the course, we went to the front headquarters with my comrade from the tank brigade, an artilleryman like me, but a gun commander. Braggart. He says: “I destroyed more tanks than you.” - “It was not you who destroyed, but the gunner who destroyed.” - “I commanded!” - “Exactly what you commanded.” Well, God bless him.

We met the girls from the communications center there. They told us where they lived, and we “locked ourselves in” to visit them at about five in the afternoon. They were all well dressed and well-groomed. The stockings are not simple, but fildepers. After 15 minutes they tell us: “Guys, leave.” - "Why? We have time, you’re not on shift either.” - “Don’t you understand, or what?!” We're all scheduled. Now the working day is over, they will come for us.”

It is not surprising that among the soldiers there was a contemptuous attitude towards the “painted” girls and women, and in the attitude towards those PPJ who actively used their position, hatred was mixed with contempt. That's when these songs were born:

Now everyone is kind to you,

You have success everywhere

But I have a soldier's soul

I despise you, PPZh.

She doesn't live like a soldier in a dugout

Cheese, where the smokehouse flickers.

They've already found an apartment for her in the village,

She drives around in an Emka.

An elderly soldier who has been in battle,

Having a medal “For Courage”,

I am obliged to walk as lackeys at Paradise,

Not daring to say anything to her...

The system of field wives was widely developed not only in regular units of the Red Army, but also in partisan detachments and formations, where life, although harsh and full of danger, was still much more free. Wartime documents like these can serve as further proof of this.