Habits of the Soviet soldiers which shocked Germans

The Germans who have intruded in the USSR in the summer of 1941 have been properly "processed" by the gebbelsovsky promotion declaring "inferiority" of the Russian and other people of the Soviet Union. Soon conquerors had to learn at first hand that they deal with motivated, clever and sharp-witted soldiers. It is no wonder that some habits of Red Army men nevertheless surprised fighters of Wehrmacht.

Neatnik

Germans were surprised to that attention which the Soviet soldiers paid to both personal hygiene, and maintenance of purity in the locations. The military personnel of Wehrmacht noted that Russians are well accustomed to hygiene. Besides, many Red Army men, the German soldiers remembered, had good teeth. It strongly discorded with that information on "inferiority" and "dirt" of the Russian and other people of the Soviet Union which was inspired in soldiers of the German army by propagandists of the Reich. Unlike Red Army men, the habit to hygiene and maintenance of acceptable sanitary conditions hasn't been so widespread in the German parts. The Soviet fighters after capture of blindages of Germans repeatedly noted that they found a huge number of various parasites there. As the lieutenant Vermakhata Evert Gottfried noted, his division has learned a habit to periodically wash and wash the clothes from Red Army men.

To take a steam bath in a bath

This national entertainment of Russians very much surprised Germans. Some military personnel of the German army compared visit of a bath by Red Army men to a ritual. The habit of the Soviet soldiers to take a steam bath, tolerate the terrifying heat and at the same time to whip each other wet rods, and then to run out on a frost and to be rubbed off by ice was exotic for Germans who, the corporal Walter Oppermann noted. In general, in a bath our fighters were very often. In 1942 they washed more than 106 million times, in 1944 – 272 million. Besides, rear services which only for penultimate year of war of a prodizenfitsirovala about 167 million sets of a soldier's form tirelessly worked.

Hope at random

Habit to hope at random – one more typical national line of Russians. She was shown and at the front. Quickly changing situation dictated need to make non-standard decisions, often self-destructive, but in certain situations only true. Without hope on "perhaps will carry by" here anywhere. It was noted also by Germans who were surprised to similar imprudence: to advance to in advance hopeless attack, to engage with repeatedly superior forces of the opponent, to turn impudent operations in the back of the enemy – all this in consciousness of our fighters was supported with that "avosy". Where already without her, and suddenly will carry? I struck the military personnel of Wehrmacht and adaptedness of the Soviet fighters to a severe environment, their ability to actions even in the most severe frosts. As the chief of the 4th army of Wehrmacht general Günter Bluementrit wrote, Russians have got used to huge territories, and feel quite at home unlike Germans for whom plains of Eastern Europe seemed infinite and oppressive. As Russians don't go crazy from them, the shocked German soldiers asked questions. They psychologically felt on spaces of the USSR insignificant and lost.

Religiousness.

In the USSR the religion was under the official ban, and the Bolshevism showed indicative intolerance to church. Promotion of the Third Reich in general spoke about a total ban of all beliefs in the Soviet Union. In reality at the front some fighters carried crosses, and before the attack or during strong firings said prayers. Germans have been surprised when they found small crucifixions, pocket icons and prayers handwritten on the sheet of paper at the killed Red Army men.

Reading

It is known that the Soviet people were the most reading in the world. Wartime was not an exception also. Under trying conditions fighters found minute - another on reading books and newspapers. Besides, nothing in common with cock-and-bull stories of Goebbels and the other other propagandists of the Third Reich inspiring to the German soldiers myths about "backward and uneducated" Russians. What was read by the Soviet fighters? After fights Germans found a set of newspapers in an arrangement of Red Army men: "In glory of the Homeland", "A red star", the Pravda. Fiction: Gorky, Sholokhov, Mayakovsky, Lermontov, Pushkin, Chernyshevsky and others. Germans and verses which or were composed by Red Army men found, or rewrote from newspapers. With a leaf in a pocket on breasts they went to the attack to the enemy.