Colonel (ret.) Ferdinand Stasek

“During the blockade of Leningrad, we were preparing and securing the historical buildings, like the Hermitage Museum, or other valuable historical buildings. We were constructing scaffolding around these buildings, about a metre and half wide, and filled with sandbags, to prevent damage to these buildings. We were also transporting the most precious artworks to the interior, mostly to the city of Gorki. Only because of this the most valuable works of art could have been preserved, and President Putin could later brag about them when the twenty presidents were in Russia on an official visit. Putin was born in Leningrad, he went to the same academy as we did. Most of all, he was showing these artworks to the German Prime Minister. We were the ones who have saved it all! But above all, we were there to guard the border near the Lake Ladoga. It was freezing a lot, and it was shortly before Christmas. The Germans were playing some songs and Christmas carols from loudspeakers. At that time, I was in command of an artillery troop, and so I said: ´Fine then, we will send them a present, too!´ and we started shooting! What a fire it was! And they shouted: ´Have you gone crazy?´ They spoke Russian. There were quite a lot of the Vlasov soldiers, because they had joined the Germans!”

“The Germans then came with an idea that since the lake was frozen, they would conquer Kronstadt. We immediately aimed our weapons at Kronstad. The German regiment marched on the ice. They beat their pace with drums. They were firing at them from behind, from craters that have remained there from the era of Peter the Great, when he was defending the city against the Swedes. The canons were placed in those holes. All remained lying on the ice. They laid there like seals, basking in the sun. Then spring came, the ice thawed.... at least the fish had something to feed on.”

“Minsk and Kiev betrayed the entire Russia. They welcomed the Germans. When the Germans came to Kiev, the locals pulled out tablecloths, bread and salt. They shouted: ´Freedom came! You have liberated us!´ In the evening, they set up tables, there was a feast: drinks, grub, whores.... Everything. This was how they welcomed the Germans. And they shouted: ´Stalin is a swine!´ And the Germans shouted: ´Schwein Stalin!´ But then the Germans advanced further, where there was the Russian army, not the Ukrainians. And you know well what the outcome was in Moscow, in Stalingrad, and in Leningrad. These were the genuine people who have destroyed fascism. But the Belarusians were traitors; the Ukrainians betrayed us, the Latvians betrayed us. These were the true traitors. These states betrayed us in the state of war, even before the fighting began. And the Hungarians betrayed us, the same way as Rumanians, ad Bulgarians were also traitors. They all went with the Germans. The German army thus became expanded by many more divisions. Before the war broke out, Molotov had signed the Treaty of Non-aggression with Hitler, and Stalin trusted this pact. But in 1941 the Germans attacked the Soviet Union. It had all been planned beforehand. When the pact was signed, Russia had 170 divisions, and the Germans had 170 divisions as well. But when Germany won those satellite states, all of a sudden they had 230 division. The defense line was reaching from the North Sea to the Black Sea, it was 1200 kilometres long, and each division was to defend a sector 45 kilometres long. You can judge for yourself, whether this was feasible, imagine it here if one division was to defend the whole distance between the towns of Třeboň and Tábor. And nobody came to help! The Americans promised they would open the second front, which the Russians had asked them for. But then they had no time for it. And when the Russians got all the way to Berlin, they hastily opened the second front. It was all pure politics! The Americans thought. ´After you lose your army, after you become weak, when both the Russian and the German is weakened, we will then become masters!´”

“Bread was being baked in Bolšoj Ižorce in the 168th division. This was where we were sending trucks for bread. The elder Vorožkov was on duty, so he went to accompany the bread transport. The truck was loaded with bread for the whole regiment. Before he could fill in all the documents, I was sent there by the regiment’s commander to check what takes them so long. The bread was already loaded, he just waited in the office for the papers. I pointed to the truck and asked: ´Elder Vorožkov, what do you see?´ And he said that everything was all right, that he had all the papers now. I shouted at him again: ´What the hell do you see?´ and I hit him in his face so that his hat fell down. He says: ´Why have you done it?´ For on the drive shaft under of the truck there were five hand grenades affixed to it. I told him: ´The person who put the grenades there could then have a feast of all this bread after the truck had exploded! And I hit you because you are not careful enough!´ From then on, the truck was always escorted by five guards. I can’t really blame the guy who had done it, I think he was forced to do it because of hunger....”