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DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Anatoly Kibrik, full unedited interview, 2007 ID SF023.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4kp7tt3z ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TABLE OF CONTENTS ITEM TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION 2 CITATION & RIGHTS 12 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 1/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Anatoly Kibrik, full unedited interview, 2007 ID SF023.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4kp7tt3z ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN TRANSCRIPT ENGLISH TRANSLATION —Today is December 2007. We are in California, in the city of Palo Alto, meeting with a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Please, introduce yourself, tell us what your childhood was like, where you studied, in which family you grew up, how you ended up in the army, and how you spent the war years? Please proceed. My name is Anatoly Kibrik. I was born on May 10, 1924 in Kiev [Kyiv]. When I turned two, my family relocated to Moscow. I was born in a Jewish family. My maternal grandfather was an official rabbi. In Moscow, Father worked in the industrial cooperation system as the commercial director of a factory. I went to school no. 284 in Rostokinsky and then Shcherbakovsky district of Moscow. About 70% of the pupils in our class were Jewish. Everyone went to the front, and only two survived. The rest perished. On June 21, 1941 we had a graduation ball. I kissed a girl for the first time. We wandered the streets of Moscow at night, and that’s when I had my first kiss. And in the morning the war was declared. Father volunteered in the early days, as soon as the people’s militia began to form. Father volunteered for the militia division of the Kirovsky district of Moscow and died in October near Moscow. Unlike me, Father was completely unprepared for war. He was a sickly man, he had never before handled weapons, except for the toy pistols that he gifted me. My brother was a pilot. From the first days of the war, he also flew to the front. He was shot down near Stalingrad [Volgograd], but survived. He was a disabled veteran and after the war devoted his life to agriculture: he worked as a director of a state farm. I got a job. We had an ammunition plant near our house. I got a job there as an apprentice worker and then as a press worker. I was seventeen. Then the plant evacuated to Cheboksary, the Chuvash Republic. I worked there until January 1942. I itched to go to the front. I was seventeen and had a worker’s exemption, so they wouldn’t take me. But I really wanted to go to the front. I left the factory, went to work in an evacuated tobacco factory, worked there for two weeks, and was drafted as a volunteer. I was well-built, physically fit, and a good shot: we had a solid paramilitary training at school. So, I went to the front. I got to the Leningrad Front. I fought with the Leningrad and then 2nd Baltic Fronts. Of the war days, several events are especially memorable to me. First, the seven days from January 12 to January 17 of 1943, when the Siege of Leningrad [St. Petersburg] was broken. The Siege was a terrible thing, of course. For 900 days, Leningraders were surrounded by the enemy. As young, healthy, strong guys—I was already a seasoned fighter by then—we were selected for assault units. I ended up a commander of a rifle squad. For about ten days before the battle, we were trained to cross the Neva. The steep bank of the Neva was under constant fire from the German side, who had dug in properly. This is the area of Sinyavino heights, the Sinyavino swamps were located there. The Germans had made solid preparations. Their best divisions defended the area and they were sure that it would be impossible to break the blockade. Colonel-General 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 2/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Anatoly Kibrik, full unedited interview, 2007 ID SF023.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4kp7tt3z ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN Govorov had just been appointed commander of the Front. He was a former officer of the Russian General Staff, slender and fit. He was very different from the bandit-generals, like Mokashov, who . Do you remember how in 2001 or 2002, when the Supreme Soviet was assaulted, Mokashov, his face distorted by hatred, led people into attack . He was also Colonel General. Govorov was a slender, tall, fit officer. I remember now how he said: “Sonnies, take care of yourselves". We had never been talked to like that. We were trained, given ladders, pike poles, and gripping hooks. Just like when Suvorov stormed Izmail. That’s how they presented it in the press. On January 12, at six in the morning, if memory serves me well, a powerful artillery barrage commenced. At first, there was a “Katyusha” volley, followed by thousands from guns of all calibers, including the heavy artillery of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, which brought down the terrible firepower on the German positions. Everything was ablaze. After the artillery preparation, we rushed in. The assault units went first. It was us. Behind us moved the infantry and the artillery. We broke into German trenches. We easily took the forwardmost trenches, because the surviving Germans were completely stunned, having lost their bearing. In subsequent trenches, the Germans began to come to their senses and fire back. And then, for the first time, I participated in close-quarters combat. I was a hardened soldier, had been wounded once before, but I had never took part in a hand-to-hand fight. It was my first time. We fought . I fought with the butt of a submachine gun, others used sapper spades, whatever they could get their hands on. I don’t remember exactly, but in that battle I killed at least ten Germans. I recall each day: the 12th, 13th, 14th, I remember when the Germans launched a counterattack, I remember everything. On the 20th we, the Leningrad Front, met up with the soldiers of the Volkhov Front, and thus the blockade of Leningrad was broken. Leningrad rejoiced. We got to visit Leningrad those days and saw thousands of corpses strewing the city’s streets, floating in the Neva. It was a horrific picture, of course. Leningraders and the whole country expected from us . I had participated in many battles but nothing had come close to that battle, to its heat and ferocity. That is why I remember everything by the day. I was decorated for this battle. The Order of Glory for soldiers and the Order of Victory for commanders had just been created. I was decorated with the Order of Glory 3rd Class for breaking the Siege. These battles I remember well. And before that . All Leningraders know what Nevskaya Dubrovka, Nevsky Pyatachok [Neva Bridgehead] is. There, on a small piece of shore of six square kilometers, if my memory serves me right, we fought for a foothold on the right side of the Neva where the Germans were deployed. A division would be thrown over there every three days. The division consists of twelve thousand men, and only 200-300 people would come back—the rest remained there forever. Perhaps it had its strategic significance. It’s hard for me to understand, but I guess it was necessary. I got a chance to fight there once. I especially remember the battles for Libava [Liepaja]. This was Latvia, already in the last months of the war, 2021 © BLAVATNIK ARCHIVE FOUNDATION PG 3/12 BLAVATNIKARCHIVE.ORG DIGITAL COLLECTIONS ITEM TRANSCRIPT Anatoly Kibrik, full unedited interview, 2007 ID SF023.interview PERMALINK http://n2t.net/ark:/86084/b4kp7tt3z ITEM TYPE VIDEO ORIGINAL LANGUAGE RUSSIAN the last six months. All the German, all the Nazi scum had assembled there: the SS, the Spanish “Blue Division”, the Hungarian Division, the Finnish Division as well as the Latvian SS Division, the Lithuanian SS Division, the Estonian SS Division. All that filth! Throughout the war, I hadn’t encountered such resistance. Ostensibly, all the Nazi filth had accumulated there. It was there when I first learned how the Jews as a nation had been exterminated. Before then, we were unaware, and there I first found out, because there were a lot of camps in Latvia. We later found out that many Jews had escaped to Latvia from all over Europe. In Latvia, Jews were annihilated by Latvians and Lithuanians, and Estonians; even the Germans killed fewer people compared to these great “democrats”. When I went on business trips to these republics after the war, I was wary about these places, because I had seen many people there who had been engaged in this dirty work. —Was it 1944? The end of 1944 beginning of 1945. The fighting was terrible there. The end of the war was near, but it didn’t feel like it. In Libava I was wounded for the third time and ended up in the hospital. After discharge I was sent for further education as someone who had graduated highschool with very good grades: I had top grades, except for two C’s in drawing and music appreciation—God has denied me the ability to do either. I was admitted to the Red Army’s Institute of Foreign Languages, which produced highly qualified interpreters. —Where was the institute located? In Moscow. VIYAKA. The provost was Lieutenant General Biyazi, an illustrious Soviet spy in Germany.