Isaac GOLDMAN, participant of the Great Patriotic War, head of the department of the 1st Moscow Medical Institute named after I. M. Sechenov

This material was sent to the editorial office through third parties. From the first lines, it seems that everything became clear - the brother is looking for a missing brother. It turned out that the story is about something completely different. About the tragic fate of a man crippled by war. The author offered what was written to one or another edition. Months passed, but the material never saw the light of day. We decided to publish this story, because the topic of a man at war is very important for our magazine. After all, the army should always be ready for front-line tests. Remember: if you want peace, prepare for war.

The train was going to Mogilev. My brother Grigory studied in this city. Now his school was unveiling a memorial plaque with the names of students who had fallen in the war. But there was no family name on that board, my brother was listed as missing. His fate is still unknown... Only a yellowed soldier's photograph stirs my memory.

Memory... Tragic, funny, sad, it is always unique, everyone has their own. The body forgets the pain caused once, the soul-never.

I can't say that that plaque without my brother's name offended me. No, people reasoned sensibly: a man disappeared, there was no news about him, and who knows if he is worthy... What if?

Those who didn't know my brother might think so. But I knew. So I started my own search.

...In April 1941, my brother, who had served for a year in the Far East "in cadres", was transferred with his unit to Cherkasy, where a new rifle division was being formed. Just before the war, it left for the west, and then its traces were lost in the smoky smoke of nazi tanks rapidly advancing on Ukraine. That was all I knew.

Marshal Ivan Khristoforovich Bagramyan helped me. The former head of the operational department of the Kiev Special Military District could not help but know that literally in the last pre-war days only one military unit was formed in Cherkasy - the 190th Rifle Division. Its commander was Colonel Grigory Alexandrovich Zverev, who also went missing at the front.

I was not reassured by this information, as well as the answer from the Central Military Archive: the TsAMO documents of the 190th division were not received. Thousands of people disappeared, as if disappearing into thin air...

And suddenly news from the personnel Department of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR:

"The fate of the division commander is unknown, but the commissar turns out to be alive and living in Rostov."

So I ended up in this city. After listening carefully to me, the general gave a sad and evil smile, went to the bookshelf, habitually took a book from it and opened it unmistakably to the right page. People in some kind of paramilitary jacket were looking at me from a group photo. Their faces were drawn.

"Here he is, the division commander," the general pointed disgustedly at one of them. "He's not missing...

How I want to forget everything, but do not forget! We remember a lot.

How many human destinies were crippled by the war. People's fates are ambiguous. And I can't help but tell you about one of them - the fate of Colonel Zverev, in whose division my brother, soldier Grigory Goldman, served.

..The future colonel joined the Red Army as a volunteer in December 1919, fought on the Wrangel Front, and quickly progressed from platoon leader to regimental commander. Participation in the "liberation campaign" in Western Ukraine, the war with Finland - his military path after the civil war. In the spring of 1941, Zverev was assigned to form the 190th Rifle Division.

A strong-willed, determined commander, but reserved and uncommunicative, Zverev was not averse to making friends with pretty women, could get drunk in a drunken stupor. The nickname "Beast" is firmly attached to him, although it has an analogy with his last name, but it is also suitable in character.

In the first hours of the Great Patriotic War, Zverev's division steadfastly repelled the attacks of the fascists near the old border, then, following the order of the command, began to withdraw into the depths of the fortified area, losing people and equipment.

It is only later, on the outskirts of Kiev, during the defense of Lyubar, Ivanopol (Yanushpol), Berdichev, when the ground will literally burn under your feet, Colonel Zverev will repeat more than once: "The Russian soldier is fighting to the death!" And he will personally shoot soldiers "for cowardice", put a barrier detachments... The end justified the means - so the divisional commander believed and fought desperately for his land... But the division continued to fight its way south. By July 30, they reached the village of Berestovets. Here a fierce battle broke out with the German SS division. There were not enough forces to hold the village. From the command post of the division commander, you could see how the chains of German machine gunners surrounded the village. The divisional artillery fell silent: the shells ran out. This was reported to the division commander by a young artillery lieutenant. The colonel ordered him to gather all the gunners and go with them to the chain. He protested, referring to the order not to use gunners in the infantry. A shot rang out in response, and the lieutenant began to sink to the ground. The gunners rushed to dismantle their rifles... Seeing the approaching car of the medical battalion, the divisional commander ordered the staff to leave it, go to their huts and change into civilian clothes. And he and a group of officers got into the car, and it drove away from the village. The gunners also began to leave their positions. A few days later, Colonel Zverev was seen in the village of Podvysokom near the headquarters of the 6th Army, where he collected the remnants of his long-suffering division. He managed to collect about 300 bayonets, two guns and several machine guns.

On August 2, it became known that the entire 6th Army is completely surrounded in the interfluve of Yatran and Sinyukha. The colonel makes several attempts to escape from the encirclement, but to no avail. Several staff officers and 80 soldiers remained in the detachment, many of whom were wounded.

On August 11, the soldiers of this detachment hold their last battle. The forces are unequal. The division commander and his commissar, firing back, try to withdraw to the village of Podvysokoe, but it has already been captured by German troops. The divisional commander runs out of ammunition, and at this moment he gets hit in the back. He was felled by two German jaegers and captured. He ends up in a collection camp in the village of Pokotilovo, and then in the "Uman Pit" - a clay quarry where several tens of thousands of prisoners of war were collected. Taking advantage of the confusion, Colonel Zverev removes the insignia from his tunic, then changes into a soldier's clothes. Mingles with a crowd of wounded soldiers (his neck is bandaged because of a carbuncle). After the stage arrives in Vinnytsia, he manages to register under the name "Shevchenko". Taking advantage of the disbanding of local Ukrainians from the camp, they managed to escape from captivity together with the battalion commissar of the 60th Rifle Division and three of his junior commanders.

Colonel Zverev does not return to his own forces until September 6 on one of the sections of the Bryansk front. It is checked for two weeks in a special department of the front, and then it is sent to the personnel department of an NGO with a recommendation not to use it in the combat area.

A new life began for Colonel Zverev. He diligently gives himself to the formation of marching regiments. He wants to go to the front. In December 1942, he was appointed deputy commander of the 127th Rifle Division, and then transferred to the 350th Division.

During one of the failed operations, the enraged commander of the 3rd Tank Army, Rybalko, removes the commander of the 350th Division, General Gritsenko, and appoints Zverev instead. The colonel is actively involved in the offensive operation conducted by the division. Its units are rapidly crowding the Germans. Kharkov is taken, and Zverev is appointed commandant of the city. In the following days, the 350th Division is steadily advancing. Already near the cherished goal-the Dnieper. But the Germans manage to encircle several of our armies near Kharkov. Hundreds of thousands of fighters were killed. About two dozen of our generals were captured. The 350th Division is also surrounded.

Now it is difficult to imagine what Grigory Alexandrovich was thinking, what he was experiencing at that hour when hand-to-hand combat was boiling around his headquarters. Perhaps he was filled with the bitterness of endless bad luck, heavy defeats that had befallen him. Once again, he had to choose between life and death. He remembered calling on his soldiers to fight to the last drop of blood. He also spoke to them of the shame of captivity... But it is one thing to summon, another to perish yourself. And he made a decision: this time he surrendered without resistance... Together with his chief of staff and the commander of an artillery regiment.

There is nothing to dream about a new escape. Where to run? Who would believe him? They won't forgive him for a second captivity. Especially after order 270, in which captivity was considered as treason to the Motherland, with all the ensuing consequences-repression against the family, relatives...

Perhaps that is why he did not resist when Vlasov's general Trukhin offered him a service in the ROA instead of the camp. He was sent to Dabensdorf, near Berlin, for a propaganda course, and after completing it was appointed head of a special commission that was to recruit Soviet prisoners of war for service in the ROA.

Apparently, he tried very hard, because soon, in July 1943, he was introduced to General Vlasov. He had a long conversation with Colonel Zverev and finally offered him the post of commander of the second division of the ROA (the first division was formed by Colonel Bunyachenko). Zverev gave his consent.

Colonel Zverev's active service in the ROA begins. He travels around the POW camps and, playing on anti-Stalinist sentiments, recruits people to his division. Speaking to them, he strongly emphasizes Stalin's words that the Soviet Army has no prisoners of war, only traitors. Constantly reminds exhausted, exhausted people of that terrible existence, and then of the torment that awaits them in the camp. At the same time, most prisoners of war prefer to stay behind barbed wire. It is already 1944, and everyone feels that victory over fascism is near. There are fewer and fewer people willing to serve in the ROA, and Colonel Zverev becomes bitter. Begins to apply brutal repressive measures to recalcitrant prisoners of war. His former colleague, Colonel Ivan Andreevich Makarov, is ordered to be drowned in a latrine pit for an impudent answer.

Colonel Zverev is thrashing around. The war is coming to an end - February 1945-and his division is still not equipped.

The last days of the war were passing. The allies were in a hurry to divide the zones of influence. American troops were rushing toward Czechoslovakia from the west, and the Russians were advancing in a broad front from the east. In the narrow corridor that has been created, Vlasov's troops are rushing around, trying to escape.

Colonel Zverev is in a hurry to lead his division into the American zone. But the division is in disarray.

Here is the city of Linz. Long-awaited Americans! But they refuse to accept the surrender of the division, to let it enter their zone. On May 9, the news of the German surrender quickly spreads. Colonel Zverev is calling a meeting of divisional commanders. They are almost all unanimous: there is no blood of their compatriots on their hands, and they prefer to surrender to their own.

Soviet tanks are very close. Zverev makes a decision: do not give a fight, dismiss the personnel. Himself with a group of officers, taking advantage of the darkness, goes to the American zone. They run all night to get as far away from the Soviet troops as possible, and by the end of May 10, they reach the Markovich farm, where they consider themselves relatively safe. What they don't know yet is that the Soviet command has received permission from the Americans to search the locations of Vlasov's troops.

The raid begins on the night of May 10-11. At dawn, Soviet scouts block the farm where Colonel Zverev's group is hiding. This time the colonel fires back to the last bullet, runs into the house. A shot is heard from there. An adjutant runs into the house and sees a divisional commander on the floor with a bullet in his head.

But this time, too, Colonel Zverev was spared death. The wound was not fatal. He was taken to Moscow and placed in a hospital. Cured. In the second half of August 1946, a closed session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was held, at which the case of General Vlasov and his associates was heard. The court was presided over by the notorious V. V. Ulrich. The trial lasted two days and was closed. There were no accusers or lawyers. No witnesses were called. The verdict was already sealed. This was also understood by the defendants, and perhaps this is why most of them did not ask for mercy in their last words.

When it was Grigory Zverev's turn, a bent, sharply haggard man stood before the court. He said that he never had any dislike for the Soviet government, which gave him, as a simple guy, the opportunity to grow as a commander, and on the eve of the war entrusted "the precious lives of many thousands of people." He endured the defeat of his division in 1941, captivity and escape, and a new setback at Kharkov in 43. He lost faith in the combat capability of the Red Army, was small-minded, voluntarily surrendered, realizing that he would not be forgiven for a second captivity.

Having succumbed to the agitation of Vlasov's emissaries, he decided to join the ROA and began to live according to its laws.

Soon, however, I realized what a muddy swamp I was in, and from the spring of ' 45 I tried in every possible way to get rid of the Fascist filth. By all means, he tried to ease the fate of the Russian people who found themselves in Germany...

Former Colonel Zverev asked the court, if possible, to spare his life or give him the opportunity to die as a soldier: to be shot.

He was hanged. According to the verdict of the court in the courtyard of the Taganskaya prison together with Vlasov and his associates. This was reported by Pravda on August 26, 1946.

The fate of Colonel Grigory Alexandrovich Zverev is one of the many human tragedies of the past war. It's not for me to judge him. Maybe some of the veterans will remember this man, maybe someone served under him and will respond to my notes. After all, my brother, Grigory Goldman, who went missing and whose fate I still don't know anything about, fought in Colonel Zverev's division. I would like to restore the truth bit by bit, and-who knows? "just in case there's someone who met my brother at the front.

Hope dies last...