MORALE OF THE RED ARMY IN GERMANY
are usually read aloud. The reports they contain are not cheerful.
Letters from villages-which even today constitute by far the greatest
part of all the letters to the army-speak only of hunger and misery.
The censors cannot help letting them pass, for otherwise they would
have to stop everything.
I have read many such letters. The main theme is always the
same: ·the parents implore the son to hasten his return home, because
they themselves cannot manage. "Otherwise, it means the death of us
here." Nor are letters from cities any more cheerful. Demobilized
soldiers tell of the chicaneries they meet with at every step. I recall a
letter from a private first-class who had a number of medals. It was
a masterpiece of sarcasm,. was read and reread by groups of soldiers,
and intensively discussed.
Even more revealing are the accounts of soldiers returned from
furlough. Their essential problem is this: the traveler who goes be–
yond Brest Litovsk, i.e., who enters the territory of the pre-war USSR,
finds himself in a kingdom of darkness, where conditions of life are
far worse than those prevailing in conquered Germany or even in
Poland. One returned officer with whom I spoke had visited his
father somewhere in the Urals. He found him in a small dark room,
sleeping on some sacking; there was not a piece of bread in the house.
The father owned only a single pair of worn-out trousers, and the
son gave
him
a civilian suit brought from Germany. The officer
assured me that his father was no exception, that in the Urals every–
one lived in this way. The people are hungry, ragged, exhausted, and
embittered. "Cultural life" is represented by one filthy club, where
the young people gather to sing, drink, and brawl.
All this taken together accounts for widespread desertion. The
men run away not so much because they want to escape from the
hardships of military service, but rather because they fear returning
home to the Soviet "kingdom of darkness." Late in 1947, about
three thousand demobilized soldiers waiting to be transported
.to Russia had been assembled in one of the towns of the Soviet zone
in Germany. Finally they were told that their contingent was to leave
the next day. The same night more than half of them disappeared.
To combat desertion, discipline has been made more rigorous,
judicial penalties have been increased. Furloughs are granted only
in exceptional cases. Soldiers are taken to the movies under guard.
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