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Red Army Soldiers and Germans
A Diary Offers Another View
Willi Beitz
The diary of Soviet officer Vladimir Gelfand is a unique historical document. Its value lies not only in the rarity of comparable testimony from the victorious Soviet side, but also in its authenticity: the notes were not written for publication and were never subsequently reshaped by an editor. Reading them can produce an almost voyeuristic feeling, as if one were looking directly into the thoughts of a twenty-two- or twenty-three-year-old lieutenant recording personal and sometimes intimate experiences, first as a front-line officer from 13 January 1945 and later as an occupier in Berlin and its surroundings until September 1946.
Where does private life end and historical drama begin? Can personal experience and high politics really be separated? The diary is more than a document of its age; it contains political explosive material. Gelfand does not present himself as a hero of the last bloody battles for Berlin. He is conscious of his competence as a mortar-unit commander, knows how to lead his men and wants recognition for what he has done. The long refusal of that recognition becomes one of his most painful disappointments. He describes conditions in his unit and in the army without embellishment: coarseness, arbitrariness and even violence against officers in front of their soldiers were not exceptional. As a Jew he also encounters antisemitism.
He is surprised to see how some Red Army soldiers can leave their units, break discipline and loot with remarkably little interference. Such freedom contrasts sharply with the common image of complete Stalinist control and repression.
Gelfand's notes differ radically from conventional Soviet propaganda, but they still provide only a limited picture of the real life of Red Army soldiers during and after the war. As the editor stresses in the informative epilogue, the everyday experience of soldiers in this period remains insufficiently researched.
After the fighting Gelfand performs various duties in the occupation administration. He meets Germans repeatedly and, with his striking southern appearance - some people even take him for an Italian - easily attracts young German women. He willingly takes advantage of this and has his first sexual experiences, describing them without embarrassment but also with emotional pain. These encounters differ sharply from the media image of "the Russians" simply as rapists. The diary does mention episodes of violence, but Gelfand rarely analyzes them deeply; he tends to record them as passing events.
An educated man with literary ambitions, Gelfand lives intensely through his emotions and changing moods. At moments of self-analysis he can resemble a Lermontov hero, which is fitting because he habitually carried a volume of the poet with him. Major political events often pass him by, and in general he remains loyal to Stalin. Yet precisely his candor, even in situations in which he does not appear in a favorable light, makes the diary an invaluable historical testimony - an unusually direct and honest reflection of its time.