Bryukhov - Red Army Tank Commander: At War in a T-34 on the Eastern Frount

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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Copyright Vasiliy Bryukhov 2013

ISBN 978 1 78159 023 2
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47382 238 2
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47382 190 3

The right of Vasiliy Bryukhov to be identified as Author of this Work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.

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I was born on 9 January 1924 in the town of Osa, Perm Oblast, in Sovetskaya Street. The house in which I lived during my childhood years still stands. I remember my sister leading me by the hand along a rut made by horse-drawn carts; we were coming up the steps to the house, and carpenters hadnt yet finished decorating the last room. Large wood shavings were everywhere I used to kick them about and they rustled so quietly.

My father reckoned our family would be a large one and so he built a substantial house. Although it was only one storey, it was roomy, and there was a deep cellar for storing pickled foods and potatoes. The house was divided into a large living room, with a table and chairs, the small bedroom where Dad slept, the small entrance hall and the kitchen. There was a cooking stove in the kitchen, which had a space on one side where the kids slept in a bunk. We had fun there and, most important, neither Mum nor Dad would stop us or scold us for being noisy.

We would spend all summer by the riverside. Our family was large, and there wasnt much to eat in the summer apart from potatoes, beetroot and carrots, but there were plenty of fish in the river. We could fill a bucket with fish using dragnets, and we would eat some then and take the rest home.

The town was covered in greenery. Each house had a front garden and there were many vegetable gardens too 200300 square metres each. The streets were paved with cobblestones in the centre of the town and unpaved elsewhere. The houses were mostly wooden; there were brick ones only in the centre, including several mansions which had been owned by rich merchants before the Revolution. Shops, markets, the jailhouse and recreation clubs were also made of brick.

There were three churches in the town. Two had been demolished I remember that as the bells were thrown down on the ground and smashed into pieces we kids were screaming with excitement. One church, which was near a cemetery, remained intact. Surprisingly this one continued to operate during the war. It became especially popular after the war, when a deacon came to run it: a handsome man, nearly 30 years of age. He was a former airman a captain. He had been shot down, and found himself behind enemy lines, where he barely survived. Following this ordeal, he acquired faith in God and promised himself that when the war was over he would join the Church. He was picked up by partisans and was discharged before the end of the war because of his injuries. People began to throng to the church not just to take part in the service but to watch him and to listen to his sermons.

My father was not religious at all and had no interest in church life. However, my mother became more devout during the war: she prayed that her children would survive. There were three of us at the front: my brother, me and my sister. So our mum prayed every day, and when the war had ended and all of us had returned home, she said: Ive been praying for you and you stayed alive.

I replied: Mum, theyve prayed for everyone but not all of the soldiers returned. This failed to dissuade her, and she would say: I prayed harder than the others.

The only link we had with the rest of the country was the Kama River. In the summertime life was in full swing: people travelled to Perm and other riverside cities. But in the winter all movement would cease and the town would appear to be asleep under snow. Winters began at the end of September, and continual frost from -20C down to -45C would last all wintertime, through until April. Even in May you could skate on puddles that had frozen overnight. We would ski until April; we used to make the skis ourselves and used leather belts as bindings. I was an excellent crosscountry skier and even adults could not catch me! When I became a district champion I was given skis with real bindings after that I had no serious challengers.

My childhood coincided with the creation of the Soviet state. In 1918 all land owned by landlords and the Church was confiscated and divided between the peasants. The allotment of land was not an easy process: prudent men fought for better ground as they knew where there was better soil and tillage. On the other hand, various drunkards and layabouts didnt care what kind of land was given them: they received their land but didnt work on it and simply rented it out, which was called ispol. People were desperate for work during the First World War and the Russian Civil War. Of course there were some who had turned to drink or crime but the majority of people returned to work. The same was to happen after the Great Patriotic War.

farms, had grown up. Of course the owners were not kulaks but hard-working people. They usually had large families, with ten to fifteen children, and up to a dozen cows, four to six horses, as well as pigs; they would sell meat and grain. They had money and the means to build: their houses were the biggest and the best in the village. This was the way it had to be if you had so many children you couldnt live cooped up together although living conditions remained quite primitive.

Take our family, for example. Initially the roof of the house was made of boards, then my dad began to earn more and replaced the boards with sheet iron. At the same time there was basic, often handmade, furniture inside the house: a table, chairs, benches, and bare floors and no curtains at the windows only well-off people could afford those. In the summer we slept wherever we could in the hay barn or simply outside, under the stars. In winter the youngest slept on the plank bed it was cooler than the stovetop. We the eldest children slept on the floor, having thrown some overcoats underneath and some as covers, using a felt boot as a pillow.

Our clothes were very simple. My mums brother was a tailor and used to have his own workshop during the NEP times. She would buy the cloth, and our relatives would then create the clothes for us. The material she bought was the cheapest possible but we were always neatly and impeccably dressed. Footwear was more difficult. In the wintertime we had two pairs of felt boots: one for out and about, the other for home. I was always lively and agile, and my clothes didnt last long. We played soccer with bare feet we would often smash our toes. We didnt have a real ball and would sew a bladder and stuff it with rags. Such a ball wouldnt roll well: you more often hit the ground instead of the ball itself.