Union of the third revival. Formation of the China Renaissance Alliance

Chapter sixteen.

LIBERATION OF VIENNA

In 1943, Vienna began to be bombed by Allied aircraft. As a result, by August 1944, according to historian Jean de Cara, "Vienna ceased to be Vienna."

On March 12, 1945, Vienna was again subjected to barbaric bombing. A total of 52 air attacks allied forces About nine thousand people died. Thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed, tens of thousands of Viennese apartments became uninhabitable, the streets of the city were literally littered with the rubble of what until recently constituted the unique image of Vienna. In general, we can say that during the Anglo-American bombings and then street fighting, the city suffered enormous damage, but at the same time the historical ensemble of the Old Town was amazingly preserved.

Street battles for the liberation of Vienna. April 1945

In the period from March 16 to April 15, 1945, after the Vienna offensive operation by the forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Marshal R.Ya. Malinovsky and the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Marshal F.I. Tolbukhin, Vienna was liberated from fascist troops.

On the German side, the Soviet troops were opposed by Army Group South, led by generals Otto Wöhler and then Lothar von Rendulic.

Hitler was not going to surrender Austria and Vienna without a fight. The 6th SS Panzer Army and a number of other units were transferred here. Defensive structures were hastily built. Barricades were erected on the streets and squares of Vienna, and firing points were installed in houses. Bridges over the Danube and canals were mined.

Colonel General von Rendulic, who replaced Otgo Wöhler, was considered a specialist in defense. Not without propaganda tricks. In particular, rumors were deliberately spread that the Soviet army would destroy all Austrians who were members of the National Socialist Party, and that the forced evacuation of the population from the eastern regions of the country to Siberia had allegedly already begun.

On top of everything else, the fascist command appealed to the residents of Vienna to fight “to the last opportunity.”

On April 5, 1945, units of the 3rd Ukrainian Front were already fighting on the approaches to Vienna. The next day, street fighting broke out on the outskirts of the city. After this, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front were also involved in the operation, which were supposed to bypass the Austrian capital from the north.

As for the mined bridges across the Danube, a group of Russian intelligence officers managed to recapture one of them from the Germans. This is what A.A. remembers about it. Chkheidze, who was at that time a scout of the Danube flotilla, who traveled from Odessa to Vienna:

“On April 5, 1945, Soviet warships with a landing force departed from the piers of Bratislava and headed up the Danube. The battles for the liberation of Austria began […]

I remember it was a warm spring day. From the Danube embankment, I carefully examined the bridges - Vienna and Imperial - through binoculars. The heavy trusses of the first were bathed in water. The Danube water rolled over them. Hitler's generals turned Vienna into a powerful center of resistance. The enemy blocked the streets of the city with numerous barricades and created rubble. Many stone buildings were equipped with firing points. Vienna was the last bastion on the approaches to the southern regions of Germany.

Of the five Viennese bridges, four were blown up, and only the fifth - the Imperial - was mined, but not yet blown up. The fascist German command did everything possible to keep the entire right bank of Vienna in its hands. The attempts of our troops to capture the bridge on April 9 and 10 were repulsed by the enemy.”

This is surprising, but exactly 140 years earlier, Napoleonic General Marbot had already noted the importance of bridges across Vienna. In his famous “Memoirs” this man wrote:

“The city of Vienna is located on the right bank of the Danube, a huge river, the small branch of which passes through this city, and the large one is at a distance of about half a league. The Danube here forms a large number of small islands, united together by a whole series of wooden bridges, ending with one large bridge crossing a wide branch of the river. The bridge reaches the left bank of the river at a place called Spiez. The road to Moravia from Vienna passes through this long chain of bridges. When the Austrians left the crossing, they had one very bad habit of keeping the bridges until the very last moment. They did this in order to be able to return and attack the enemy, who almost always did not give them time for this, but attacked himself, capturing not only manpower, but also the bridges themselves, which, due to carelessness, were not burned. This is exactly what the French did during the Italian Campaign of 1796 at numerous crossings between Lodi and Arcole. However, these lessons were lost on the Austrians. After they left Vienna, which was practically unfit for defense, they retired to the opposite bank of the Danube, without destroying a single one of all the bridges that were thrown across this wide river. They limited themselves to preparing various flammable materials in front of the large bridge in order to light it as soon as the French appeared.”

But the Germans of 1945 were not Austrians early XIX century. Of the five Viennese bridges, they have already blown up four, and carefully mined the fifth, being ready to blow it up at any moment.

According to A.A. Chkheidze, commander of the river ships brigade A.F. Arzhavkin proposed to capture the bridge by simultaneously landing troops on the right and left banks of the Danube at the approaches to the bridge. This plan was approved by the flotilla commander.

“A landing detachment and a covering detachment were formed under the command of Senior Lieutenant S.I. Klopovsky. It included five armored boats. The artillery support ship detachment consisted of eight mortar boats. It was commanded by Senior Lieutenant G.I. Bobkov. A reinforced rifle company from the 80th Guards Rifle Division under the command of Senior Lieutenant E.A. was assigned to the landing. Pilosyan.

Our armored boats were stationed near the place where I was on duty and monitoring the enemy. Finally, a company of machine gunners appeared. There were more than a hundred of them. The paratroopers brought with them a 45-mm cannon and four heavy machine guns.

Before landing, the naval officer explained to the machine gunners how best to act during the passage on the boat. The entire company boarded two armored boats.

At exactly 11 o'clock, five armored boats departed from the right bank and headed for the Imperial Bridge. They safely passed the destroyed Vienna Bridge and found themselves in the enemy's position.

The appearance of Soviet ships in the city center during the day came as a surprise to the Nazis. Taking advantage of this, Senior Lieutenant Klopovsky set up a smoke screen. And he himself opened fire from cannons and machine guns at enemy batteries located on both sides of the Danube. The enemy responded with heavy fire. The shells from the enemy battery installed at the elevator were especially accurate.

Immediately our aviation carried out a raid on the Nazis. The ships were fighting and firing as they approached the Imperial Bridge. While three boats, maneuvering, destroyed enemy firing points on the shore, two other boats with a landing party separated. The armored boat under the command of Senior Lieutenant A.P. Sinyavsky headed to the left bank, and the armored boat under the command of Senior Lieutenant A.P. Tretyachenko - to the right bank. Klopovsky's boat covered them with a smoke screen.

I clearly saw how our paratroopers quickly disembarked from the boats, how they quickly chased the machine gunners guarding the Imperial Bridge. Soon it was in our hands, and the wires leading to the explosives were cut by the miners.”

Naturally, as soon as the paratroopers captured the Imperial Bridge, the Germans immediately began furious attacks, since they understood perfectly well what the loss of this only bridge would threaten them with (the troops on the right bank would immediately be cut off from the main forces). The defense of the bridge was led by Senior Lieutenant E.A. Pilosyan. On the night of April 12-13, the Germans carried out fierce attacks on the bridge, and although the guards held out very steadfastly, the forces were unequal...

It is not known how it would have ended, but on the morning of April 13, Soviet troops broke through the German defenses in the Vienna Bridge area. Following the paratroopers, soldiers of the 80th rushed into the breakthrough. guards division. Help arrived in time, the bridge was saved, and on the same day Vienna was completely liberated.

And here is what General S.M. writes about the capture of Vienna in his book “General Staff during the War.” Shtemenko:

“On one of these days, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, when reporting the situation, said, as he often did, without directly addressing anyone:

And where is the same Social Democrat Karl Renner, who was a student of Kautsky, now? He worked for many years in the leadership of the Austrian Social Democracy and, it seems, was the head of the last parliament of Austria?..

No one answered: they never expected such a question.

“We cannot neglect the influential forces that take anti-fascist positions,” Stalin continued. - Probably, Hitler’s dictatorship taught the Social Democrats something too...

And then we received the task to inquire about the fate of Renner and, if he was alive, to find out his place of residence. We transmitted the corresponding order by telephone to the 3rd Ukrainian Front.

We knew little about the internal situation in Austria […] There was no information about Renner either.

But on April 4, a report came from the Military Council of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, where it was reported that Karl Renner himself appeared at the headquarters of the 103rd Guards Rifle Division. Later they told me that it was like this. A tall, gray-haired man in a black suit was led into the room where the staff officers worked and identified himself in German. At first no one paid attention to him special attention. Then, however, one of the political workers realized who he was dealing with and quickly reported to his superiors.

Renner turned out to be a sociable person. He willingly told the officers about his long duty life path. Since 1894, Renner was a member of the Social Democratic Party, in 1918-1920. was Chancellor of the Austrian Republic, and in 1931-1933. - Chairman of the Austrian Parliament. After the Anschluss, Renner retired to Lower Austria, withdrawing from official political activity.

Our officers asked Karl Renner how he thought he would live next. He stated that he was already old, but was ready “with conscience and deed” to contribute to the establishment of a democratic regime in Austria. “Now both communists and social democrats have the same task - the destruction of fascism,” Renner said. Understanding perfectly the situation in Austria, the astute politician, who was in his eighties, correctly assessed his importance as the last pre-Hitler leader of the country’s parliament. He offered his assistance in the formation of a provisional government of Austria at war time and warned in advance: “I expel the Nazis from parliament.”

The conversation continued for quite a long time. It was important for us to know the mood of the Viennese, since intelligence reported extensive preparations for battles in the Austrian capital. Obviously, the Nazi leaders were preparing the city for the fate of Budapest. We also received very vague information about resistance allegedly taking place somewhere in the bowels of the Vienna garrison.

Renner believed that nine-tenths of Vienna's population was anti-Nazi, but fascist repression and Anglo-American bombing frightened the Viennese: they felt depressed and incapable of active action. The Social Democrats, for their part, did not take any organized measures to mobilize the population to fight against the Nazis.

The message about the meeting with Karl Renner was received in Moscow on the evening of April 4. A.I. and I Antonov understood that some decisions would be made on this matter. As a rule, if everything was good at the fronts, I.V. Stalin, members of the Politburo, the State Defense Committee and the government, who usually gathered for meetings in his office in the Kremlin, did not ask any special questions. But this time, during the report of the situation on the 3rd Ukrainian Front, I.V. Stalin, narrowing his eyes slyly, stopped and looked at the “General Staff” for a long time. Having made sure that we understood his thoughts and mood in connection with the telegram about Renner, he again began to walk along the carpet with a satisfied expression on his face. Then, after talking with members of the Politburo, he dictated to us a telegram from Headquarters to the Military Council of the 3rd Ukrainian Front.

The telegram said: 1) trust Karl Renner; 2) inform him that for the sake of restoring the democratic regime in Austria, the command of the Soviet troops will support him; 3) explain to Renner that Soviet troops entered Austria not to seize its territory, but to expel the fascist occupiers. The telegram was signed by I.V. Stalin and A.I. Antonov. I immediately took it to the control room to transfer F.I. Tolbukhin."

After this, as General S.M. says. Shtemenko, it was decided that Marshal F.I. Tolbukhin will appeal to the population of Vienna with a call to resist the Nazis and prevent them from destroying the city, and will also make a statement on the future of Austria on behalf of the Soviet government.

This statement said:

“The Soviet government does not pursue the goal of acquiring any part of Austrian territory or changing the social system of Austria. The Soviet government adheres to the point of view of the Moscow Declaration of the Allies on the independence of Austria. It will implement this declaration. It will contribute to the elimination of the regime of the Nazi occupiers and the restoration of democratic orders and institutions in Austria.”

“The Red Army entered Austria not with the goal of seizing Austrian territory, but solely with the goal of defeating enemy Nazi troops and liberating Austria from German dependence. The Red Army is fighting against the German occupiers, and not against the population of Austria, which can calmly go about its peaceful work. The rumors spread by the Nazis that the Red Army is destroying all members of the National Socialist Party are lies. The National Socialist Party will be dissolved, but the rank and file of the National Socialist Party will not be touched if they show loyalty to the Soviet troops."

At this time, Soviet troops had already broken into the southwestern and then the southeastern part of Vienna and started stubborn battles there. The most crucial moment in the history of the liberation of the capital of Austria has arrived.

These clarifications yielded results, and the residents of Vienna, despite all the calls of the German command, not only did not resist the Soviet troops, but also took part in the fight against the Nazi occupiers.

Wehrmacht General Kurt von Tippelskirch writes about this:

“Vienna, like other cities, also became the scene of heavy street fighting, but the behavior of the population, as well as individual units participating in the battles for the city, was more aimed at quickly ending the fighting than at resistance.”

Everything that happened was immediately reported to Hitler’s headquarters. The answer from Berlin was not long in coming.

“The rebels in Vienna must be suppressed using the most brutal methods.”

At the beginning of April 1945, the responsibilities for managing the situation in Vienna were assigned to General von Bünau, but on April 7 he was removed, transferring his powers to the commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps. Fascist terror was raging in the city, aimed at suppressing the Resistance movement.

By April 10 German troops in Vienna were squeezed on three sides. Three days later, the armed resistance of the Nazis was broken, and Vienna was liberated.

The results of the operation were: the defeat of eleven Wehrmacht tank divisions, 130,000 captured soldiers and officers, over 1,300 destroyed tanks and self-propelled guns. Soviet troops reached the southern borders of Germany, marking the already predetermined collapse of the Third Reich.

Soviet soldiers and residents of Austria in liberated Vienna. April 1945

Major General I.N. Moshlyak, commander of the 62nd Guards rifle division, recalls:

“Vienna rejoiced. Its residents poured out into the streets. Sheets with the text of the appeal of the commander of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Marshal, were pasted on the walls of the houses. Soviet Union F.I. Tolbukhin […] Crowds of Viennese residents stood in front of the sheets pasted on the walls, animatedly discussing the text of the appeal. The townspeople waved their hands welcomingly to the columns of our soldiers passing through the streets, many raised a clenched fist - “Mouth front!” For the residents of Vienna, the war is over, the cannons have ceased to roar, machine guns have stopped firing, and cartridges have stopped exploding. Our sapper units began to build crossings across the Danube (the Nazis blew up all the bridges, except one), and repair tram and railway lines.”

But here is the story of the former intelligence officer of the Danube flotilla A.A. Chkheidze:

“The streets and squares of the Austrian capital were crowded with people. Residents treated Soviet soldiers warmly. We liked the architecture of Vienna and its friendly, elegant people. There are many architectural monuments here. I especially remember the majestic St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Austrians are a very musical people. Therefore from open window The sounds of a violin or accordion could often be heard.

We also visited Strauss's grave. The Danube sailors laid a wreath to the talented composer. We stood for a long time at his grave, remembering what we had read about Strauss’s life, and especially the episodes of his life known to us from the movie “The Great Waltz.”

We also got acquainted with another “attraction” of Vienna. Near the capital there was a large concentration camp. At that time the name Mauthausen did not mean anything to us. But the Austrians told how many Soviet prisoners of war died here. Particularly shocking was the report that in February 1945, feeling imminent retribution for their crimes, the Nazis took a group of prisoners out into the cold in their underwear and began to water them with fire hoses. Among the prisoners of war was Lieutenant General Karbyshev, who suffered a terrible death together with his comrades.”

Karl Renner, in a note sent to the governments of the USSR, USA and Great Britain at the end of April 1945, said:

“Thanks to the victorious advance of the Red Army, which liberated the capital of Vienna and a significant part of Austria from the armies German Empire, it became possible to regain our full political independence again, and, based on the decisions of the Crimean Conference, as well as the Moscow Conference of 1943, representatives of the various political parties of the country decided to restore the Republic of Austria as an independent, independent and democratic state."

General SM. Shtemenko says that Karl Renner wrote a letter to I.V. Stalin. Here is its content:

“During its offensive, the Red Army found me and my family in my place of residence Glognitz (near Wiener-Neustadt), where I, together with my party comrades, full of trust, awaited its arrival. The local command treated me with deep respect, immediately took me under their protection and again gave me complete freedom of action, which I was forced to give up with pain in my soul during the fascism of Dollfuss and Hitler. For all this, on my own behalf and on behalf of the working class of Austria, I most sincerely and humbly thank the Red Army and you, its glorious Supreme Commander-in-Chief.”

The subsequent part of Karl Renner's letter dated April 15, 1945 consisted of various types of requests. In particular, he wrote:

“The Hitler regime doomed us here to absolute helplessness. We will stand helpless at the gates of the great powers when the transformation of Europe is realized. Already today I ask for your favorable attention to Austria at the council of the great and, as tragic circumstances allow, I ask you to take us under your powerful protection. We are currently threatened by famine and epidemic, and we are threatened by loss of territory in negotiations with neighbors. In our rocky Alps we already have very little arable land; it provides us with only meager daily food. If we lose another part of our territory, we will not be able to live.”

I.V. Stalin replied to Karl Renner:

“Thank you, dear comrade, for your message of April 15. You can rest assured that your concern for the independence, integrity and well-being of Austria is also my concern.”

As a result, the Austrian Provisional Government was created at the end of April. The government was headed by Karl Renner.

Under the terms of the Potsdam Conference (July 16 - August 2, 1945), Austria and Vienna were divided into four sectors of occupation: Soviet, American, English and French. The city center was allocated for a joint four-way occupation.

Colonel G.M. Savenok, in post-war period who worked for several years in the Soviet military commandant's office of Vienna, recalls how brutally Vienna was disfigured:

“Before the war, Vienna had about 100,000 residential buildings. By April 13, 3,500 houses were completely destroyed, 17,000 buildings required major repairs. In short, a fifth of the housing stock in the Austrian capital is out of order. 35,000 people were left homeless, including those Viennese who returned from concentration camps and prisons.

Before the war there were 35,000 cars in Vienna. By April 13, by some miracle, 11 trucks and 40 cars had survived.

The fire department of the Austrian capital consisted of 3,760 firefighters and 420 vehicles. There are 18 firefighters and 2 vehicles left. There was no one and nothing to put out the fires.

There was no gas in Vienna. And not only because the gas plants were out of order. A network of gas pipes with a total length of 2,000 kilometers was interrupted in 1,407 places.

The supply of electricity almost completely stopped: power plants were destroyed, and the electrical cable within the city suffered 15,000 damages.

Vienna was left without water: out of 21 reservoirs, 2 remained; the city water supply network was disrupted in 1,447 places.

Of the many dozens of bridges and viaducts, only two bridges were saved by Soviet troops: one across the Danube, the second across the Danube Canal. The rest stuck out of the water like twisted skeletons.

Many Vienna streets became impassable: there were 4,457 shell craters gaping on them.

However, the worst thing is that Vienna was left without food.

Central and regional warehouses were burned, destroyed, and devastated by the retreating fascists. Only a few supplies of flour remained. It was enough only for a few random, far from regular distributions, and even then at the rate of no more than a kilogram of bread per person per week. Vienna was on the verge of real famine.”

On November 25, 1945, the first post-war elections were held in Vienna, and Karl Renner (1870-1950) became the first president of the Second Austrian Republic.

This man was born on December 14, 1870 in the German part of Moravia into a peasant family. He studied law in Vienna, made a living by giving private lessons, and held the position of government librarian. In 1894 he became one of the leaders of the Austrian Social Democratic Party, although he never adhered to orthodox Marxist views. Rather, he was a supporter of the right wing of social democracy, an ideologist of so-called Austro-Marxism.

Karl Renner, President of the Second Austrian Republic

Karl Renner died in Vienna on December 31, 1950. He was buried in the Central Cemetery, which was opened in 1874. There, in the center, in front of the church, there is a round platform sunk into the ground where the presidents of the Second (post-war) Republic are buried.

After Karl Renner died, Austria chose in his place Theodor Kerner (1873-1957), a retired general of the Austrian army, who on April 17, 1945 was appointed by the Soviet occupation forces in Austria as temporary burgomaster of Vienna. In fact, he was the country's first president elected by direct vote. According to the memoirs of Colonel G.M. Savenoka, he was “a seventy-year-old man of rare honesty and modesty.”