The Rzhev Meat Grinder: Surviving Hell

“People move forward mechanically, and many die— but we no longer belong to ourselves. A mysterious wild element of battle has captured us all. Explosions, shrapnel, and bullets scattered the soldiers’ chains, tearing living and dead apart. How can people endure that? How to protect yourself in this hell? The roar of battle drowns out the desperate cries of the wounded; medics, risking everything, rush between the wall of searing fire and those terrible cries; trying to save, they drag maimed, bloodied bodies into the nearest shell craters. In the deafening whistle of shells, we stop recognizing one another. Pale faces, clenched lips. Someone cries while running, and tears mixed with sweat and mud flow down the face, blinding the eyes. Someone tries to cross himself while running, begging with a look toward the sky. Someone calls for a little Mаруська…”

That is how Boris Gorbachevsky describes his first battle—he had to take part in and survive one of the bloodiest clashes of the Great Patriotic War: the summer offensive near Rzhev. For him, the war ended in Czechoslovakia, but it was the battles on the Kalinin Front that left the strongest mark in his memory.