Scout, Naval Infantry Brigade, Baltic Fleet
Scout party leader, Ladoga Fleet during Great Patriotic War
Before the war
Before our service in the armed forces we were all very much in sports. Sports were very well developed those days, and when I came to the Navy, I had first degree in boxing. When the Baltic Fleet held its boxing championship in 1940, I got the first prize. That was kind of for my own self-esteem. Later, when I became a scout, all these skills proved useful - how to act against a person armed with a pistol, and so on. All those things proved necessary.
We were all sportsmen, all had some degrees or levels. It was not easy to get a GTO (Gotov k trudu i oborone - ready for labor and defense) badge - you and to ski some distance, swim some distance, do a high jump and long jump. It was not as easy as it is now. Voroshilov's Sharpshooter badge was the same - first you had to fire a small-caliber rifle, then a regular rifle, make a certain amount of points, and then you would get a Voroshilov's sharpshooter badge - it looked like a red banner a bit.
I was drafted in the First Naval Infantry Brigade in Kronshtadt. Our main weapon was a regular Mosin rifle. I could shoot well, at 25 meters I could knock down an empty bullet cartridge from TT pistol. When the war broke out, we had semiautomatic rifles for ten and them fifteen shots. Those rifles had a large bayonet, you could kill a pig with such a bayonet. It was later that we got submachine-guns, early days we only had rifles. By the way, you have to know how to shoot a submachine-gun, too - in short bursts. Later, when I was a scout, we also had pistols, five or six grenades per person and so on. But that all was later, during the second war.
Winter War
I was drafted during Komsomol draft and did my basics in Kronshtadt, later in October 1939 we were transferred to Shlisselburg fortress. We did some more training there. We were being prepared, but that time we had not yet known, for what. Later, when the campaign in Poland, Belorussia and Ukraine was over, troops started moving to the northern shore via Shlisselburg. We did not know, why. But actually, if you know Karelian Isthmus, there is Beloostrov, then Solnechnoe, and Solnechnoe was already Finnish territory. It was right across the river there. Some people ask - why did that war happen? It was necessary. The fact that we moved border beyond Vyborg, helped us a lot. From Solnechnoe they could easily fire on Leningrad. They (Finns) had a very strong defense. I saw it myself. From Gulf of Finland to Ladoga, bunkers had been built, up to 1.5 meters of concrete thick walls - I saw myself, how our planes bombed them and bombs ricocheted. Besides that, Karelian Isthmus has a lot of hills, lots of snow - hard to get through anyway. Finns also had bunkers, all had been pre-sighted with machine-guns and cannons. Even more so, they had barbed wire obstacles - five or four rows, lots of mines planted. When our troops tried to break through - they had lots of wounded. Frosts were also strong - when we were skiing, wind blowing into our faces was just stinging! Those times we did not have protective glasses and all those fancy things, just a helmet liner. Sometimes, when we were standing on guard duty, we still tried to turn our backs on the wind. So the frost was very strong, though we were very well dressed, it did not help anyway.
Gunboats and minesweepers were based in Saunasaari bay on the western shore of Ladoga lake during the Winter war - they were stuck there in the ice. Our entire company was there guarding them from possible attack. Feeding was good, they would bring us food in thermoses, but the bread was frozen. Feeding was good, I have no reasons to complain. They also issue us geese fat We covered our faces and hands with it in order to prevent frostbite. It was still cold, regardless of how well were dressed. We had short sheepskin jackets, and those who went on guard duty even had sheepskin coats. The bay was open form the east, so we built dugouts and machine gun nests there. In our dugout we set a barrel, installed a chimney and burnt wood in it twenty-four-seven. This stove produced heat, but also a lot of smoke and smut - we all looked like chimney-cleaners. Our barbed wire fence only had one row. We would hang empty tincans on the fence, just like Germans did.
In one kilometer distance from the bay there was a small island. We made a dugout there and sent a party there, too. During the night our scout parties went further away on the ice. During the day we could see a lot, but during the night our scout parties had to sit there on the ice further out and wait.
From early January the leadership started to train and prepare our group. They chose some nine or ten of us, I do not remember the exact number. They told us to prepare our skies, have dinner and rest till midnight - they did not tell us anything more, it was all top secret. Then we got up and skied on the ice of Ladoga lake - it was not guarded, it was free! We skied from Saunasaari bay to Konevets island, it was in some 25 kilometers from us. Our front-line was not far from there, our troops tried to advance, but did not get a damn thing. Two our scouts were on a mission, and we escorted them to the Finnish rear. We reached a certain area on the ice, some 2-3 kilometers from the coast, and then they continued their journey to the Finnish rear by themselves. They were dressed in Finnish uniforms, but it did not make much difference anyway - everyone had white overall. Depending on the situation, they would stay there for two or three days and then we would again get an order to have dinner and rest till midnight. Then again we would have to ski in the night to the place where we had to pick those scouts up. They waited for us there. They were signaling us with flashlights. We brought them back to our lines and they went to the HQ. WE had to repeat this journey approximately four times. All those scouts were later awarded with Order of Red Banner. I only recently learnt that they knew Finnish passwords and were freely moving there. The last time the password had changed, they did not know it, so they had to exchange fire with Finns and get out onto the lake right away. They arrived back to our lines ahead of schedule, and our troops spotted them form observation tower and raised alarm: "Finnish ski troops!" The guy on the ice did not even realize that he was already in the area controlled by Russians. We sent a truck on the ice in order to pick him up, but he started to run away like crazy. But the truck caught up with him and he was captured, and he turned out to be Russian. It was him who told the story that the password had changed and they had to flee on to the ice of the lake. This is why he made it to our lines in the morning. He new the way.
The scouts would go there just with submachine-guns They did not have radios, even in the early days of the Great Patriotic War we did not have them. In 1942, they made a small radio, transmitter and receiver, in besieged Leningrad. During the siege this radio was produced by Kozitski factory. Those radios were called Kama and Sever. The radio was good, we could both transmit and recede signal very easily. Those scouts were from the Navy, the Army's scouts would go separately from us. They did the same job as during the Great Patriotic War - they had to find out, what kind of fortifications Finns had, where artillery was and so on.
The gunboats that were frozen in the bay, were firing at Finnish positions. Finns returned fire on those gunboats, Finns even sent their planes there. Those were either reconnaissance panes or artillery observation planes, one of them was shot down. The two Finnish pilots that were in it, died. The plane was small, it was made of plywood. We buries those pilots. One time we had an alarm - one of our companies went to the ice in order to do some training, and we spotted them from the shore positions and mistook them for Finns. It was good that we did not open fire and did not kill our own men. It was a very heavy blizzard, you know. It was good that we did not fire, we would have had cut them all down. Most of the time it was just sitting there and being on guard duty. We did not have any skirmishes with Finns. They left us alone there.
We had almost no losses - it was just two our guys who were killed by the Finnish mines. They detonated mines, those young guys. It's like this. After the peace treaty was signed, Finns were given some time to withdraw and leave the territory that we were getting according to the treaty. When the time was over, we went to Konevets island. Finnish coastal battery with guns and ammo was still there, they could not evacuate anything. There was also a monastery on hat island with three-story building, chapels and they had everything there - jam, samovars - they left everything behind. I also remember the room where they had their meetings - armchairs, paintings on the walls and clocks - some of them still running. There were plenty of clocks, I don't know, why did they need so many clocks? When we came, there was still some bread left there, Finnish rye bread, like modern Russian round bread - I had not seen such bread before. Downstairs they in cellars they had warehouses - macaroni, other food, letters in Russian.
We came there, and politruk Lavkin was with us, he later lost his leg on Neva bridgehead. We walked around to see what was there. We found a whole pig's carcass, already processed, hanging there in the cellar. Our cook cut off a slice of meat from it, but our politruk had told us before: "Guys, don't touch anything, it can be poisoned!" How can jam be poisoned, if it is sealed in a jar? we walked on and saw beehives preserved for winter, so guys took some honey out of them. Our cook, in the meantime, cut a slice of that pork, fried it and told us: "guys, wake me up in two hours, if I am still alive, then the meat is OK" These were the kind of jokes that we had. Of course the politruk was mad at us, but who would poison a whole pig's carcass?
Two jeeps arrived later, and we drove off to Keksholm. The city was empty, not a single living soul. We drove on later, and saw dead sheep on the road - apparently, Finns shot the cattle before their withdrawal, and our soldiers picked up the meat later on. Then we met a cow. Our destination was Lahdenpohja, which was to become base of our Ladoga fleet. When we came there, everything was there on the houses. They did not take anything with them, when they left. They only took the most valuable things with them, the rest was left in their homes. Clothes were hanging in wardrobes. There were plenty of sleds. One thing that amazed me was that as we walked pass the small Finnish villages, we saw skis standing next to the houses -starting from small skies for children and up to large skis for adults. So, right after a Finn is born, he gets on the skies. In Lahdenpohja we settled down in their homes, There were very beautiful stove in those homes, with all kinds of decorations. We had not seen such beauty before.
© 2002 Bair Irincheev
This interview belongs to Mannerheim Line page
Memories of Mr. N. P. Bavin about his participation in Great Patriotic War - retreat from Lahdenpohja, Shlisselburg landing and his activities as scout party leader will be published at I remember page