By Vestnik Kavkaza
Today in Russia and the world the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War is being celebrated. The importance of this historical event is increasing every year. The memories of the people of the former Soviet Union about the war is supported by mutual values. The Victory Day was procured by our unity. It is an opportunity to pay tribute to all those who fought and worked in the home front during the wartime. People, who led the country to the Victory, were interviewed by Vestnik Kavkaza. Albert Semushin, a veteran of World War II, shared his memories of the war:
I am an Archangelsk coast-dweller myself. Our house in Archangelsk was next to the Archangelsk Forest and Technical Institute where all the youth studied. A provocateur released light missiles from the warehouses, as a result, the missiles hit the building, the building was set alight. My house was next to me, the whole city was made of wood, of sawdust, because there was a lot of woodwork. And my house burned down, my family burned.
We, classmates, decided to respond to the call of Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, that orphaned, parentless children can study at the shipboys school of the Northern Fleet on the Solovetskiye Islands. We were trying to get in and we got there. We gained specializations, a radio operator. I left school in 1943 with all As.
We had the following rule: those who graduated with all As chose the fleet. As I say, I am an Archangelsk coast-dweller, I would certainly choose the Northern Fleet. I met the Commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Golovko. 'So, he says, soon-to-be cabin boys, seamen?'
I was short, I was always on the pennant. 'What about you?’
I say: 'We are soon-to-be seamen and we will be, but we have come to protect our country from the German fascist invaders.'
He asked every one of us whether we wanted to serve. One says: 'I want to join the squadron of the 'Gremyashchiy' torpedo ship.' The second one says: 'I want to join the 'Murmansk' cruiser.' The third one says: 'I want to join the 'Archangelsk' battleship.'
'And you, he says, little one, who do you want to be?'
I say: 'I want to join Lunin's submarine.' He torpedoed the battleship 'Tirpitz', it was the largest battleship of fascist Germany.
Golovko says: 'You want too much! You are too young.' In fact, he said that 'I have checked your profile. Your handwriting on the radio does not differ from mechanical writing. We have fascists and their minions all over. But I will take you to the radio reception center of the headquarters of the Northern Fleet. You will receive all cypher messages about the actions of the Northern Fleet and send them to me. You will send them to Moscow, to the Defense Committee of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.' Could I object to the admiral? 'Yes, sir,' I responded. And that's how I appeared in the Northern Fleet.
It was very well written by my classmate Valentine Pikul 'Requiem PQ-17,' where Admiral Canaris of the 'wolf pack' was, it was a fascist admiral who created a network of submarines. The submarines were on the path of the convoys... And the convoys were moving to the Soviet Union to beef up the armed forces and weapons against fascist Germany. The Germans tried to destroy them. Of course, 40 ships sunk on each side. But the ships had crews composed by different countries. And they, of course, jumped into the water while sinking, but the water was in the North, the Barents Sea, the temperature there is +10-15 C. The spasm was immediate, people were dying.
And so, we were approaching the corpses lying face up on the ships, we used hooks, they are called pole hooks on ships, we were pulling the corpses to the deck. And we buried them on our land, on the Kola Peninsula.
