Roman icebreaker. Read the book "Icebreaker" online

TO MY RUSSIAN READER
I do not agree with a single word that you say, but I am ready to die for your right to say it.
Voltaire "Viktor Suvorov's opinion in the field of defense is becoming public opinion. He shapes it."
International Defense Review, Geneva, September 1989 “This book is written by a professional intelligence officer, not a historian, and this dramatically increases its value. The Soviet comrades and their Western friends will be furious. Without a fight, they will not give up the last " White spot“ in their history. Don't listen to them, read Icebreaker! This is an honest book."
"Dee Welt", March 23, 1989 "Suvorov argues with every book, every article, every film, every NATO directive, every suggestion of the British government, every Pentagon official, every academic, every communist and every every anti-communist, every neo-conservative intellectual, every Soviet song, poem, novel, every melody that has been heard, written, sung, released, performed over the past 60 years. Even for this alone, "Icebreaker" should be considered the most original work in modern history.
The Times, May 5, 1990 Forgive me.
If you are not ready to forgive, do not read further than these lines, curse me and my book - without reading. So do many.
I swung at the most sacred thing that our people have, I swung at the only shrine that the people have left - in memory of the War, the so-called "Great Patriotic War". I put this concept in quotation marks and write with a small letter.
Forgive me.
World War II is a term that the communists taught us to write with a small letter. And I write this term with a capital letter and prove that the Soviet Union is its main culprit and the main instigator. The Soviet Union has been a participant in World War II since 1939, from its very first day. The communists made up a legend that we were attacked and from that very moment the “great Patriotic War».
I knock this legend out from under my feet like an executioner knocks out a stool. One must have a cruel heart or not have one at all in order to work as an executioner, especially an executioner who kills the national shrines of the great people of his own people. There is nothing worse than doing the work of an executioner. I took on this role voluntarily. And she drives me to suicide.
I know that in millions of our houses and apartments there are photographs of those who did not return from the war on the walls. These photos hang in my house. I do not want to offend the memory of the millions who died, but tearing the halo of holiness from the war that the communists started for our common misfortune, I seem to involuntarily insult the memory of those who did not return from the war.
Forgive me.
Now Russia has lost the ideology forcibly instilled in it, and therefore the memory of a just war has remained, as it were, the only support of society. I destroy it. Forgive me and let's look for another support.
But do not think that by destroying and insulting the shrines, I find satisfaction in this. "Icebreaker" did not bring me joy. Vice versa. Working on the book devastated me. I have an empty soul, and my brain is full of division numbers. I could not bear such a book in my mind for a long time. It SHOULD be written. But for this it was necessary to flee the country. To do this, one had to become a traitor. I became it.
This book has brought so much grief to my home! My father - Rezun Bogdan Vasilyevich - went through the war from the first to the very last day, he was wounded several times, and severely, almost fatally. I made him the father of a traitor. How does he live with it? I don't know - I don't have the courage to imagine it... In addition, I destroyed his idea of the war as a great, liberation, patriotic war. My father was my first victim. I asked him for forgiveness. He didn't forgive me. And I again ask for forgiveness from my father. Before all Russia. On the knees.
This book brought grief to everyone who was close to me. To write Icebreaker, I sacrificed everything I had: for the sake of the book of my life, which gives me nothing but sleepless nights and violent attacks of criticism. Now "Icebreaker" is recognized in many countries. But it wasn't always like that...
My sentences are fully deserved by me. I do not ask for forgiveness for my betrayal and I do not want forgiveness for it. Sorry for the book. My death sentences are just to the last point. And let not those who are ordered to carry them out bother: I will punish myself.
I'm not afraid of death. It was terrible to die, I did not write this book without expressing what was revealed to me. It was terrible when all the publishers of Russian books in the West rudely or politely refused me. The book has already been published in eleven languages. In Germany it went through eight editions, in Poland three editions for May 1992 alone. But in Russian, not a single publisher, starting from 1980, did not dare to publish its full text. That was scary. Now the first of three volumes is finally coming out. Russian, and therefore I am no longer afraid of anything. Scold the book, scold me. Damn.
But - cursing - try to understand and - forgive.
Many have forgiven my bold book, my challenge to society. There were no brave men among foreign publishers of Russian books, but the chapters from the Icebreaker published free Russian newspapers and magazines. I was immediately and completely supported by human rights activists Vladimir Bukovsky, Eduard Kuznetsov, Irina Ratushinskaya, Igor Gerashchenko. Arina and Alexander Ginzburg, Irina Alekseevna Ilovaiskaya, editor-in-chief of Russkaya Mysl, a newspaper that has been publishing chapters from my book for seven years, a glorious triumvirate from the BP-BBC Russian Service, consisting of Leonid Vladimirov, Vsevolod Novgorodtsev, Alexei Leonidov. In difficult years. I have been supported by many people in my life, and I am grateful to each of them. I had to break through the Icebreaker, prove and insist, I had to take time and nerves from many. Defending my idea, I was forced to snap, offend and insult opponents and opponents, and sometimes tear their throats. To all those whom I unwittingly offended, once again I ask you to forgive me.
I am a traitor, a traitor... They do not forgive such people, but I still ask:
FORGIVE ME.
Viktor SUVOROV, 21 October. 1992, Bristol.

Valery Roshchin

The book was created according to the scenario of Alexey Onishchenko with the participation of Andrey Zolotarev for the film "Icebreaker".

"Production Firm of Igor Tolstunov" ("PROFIT") with the assistance of the Fund for Social and Economic Support of National Cinematography (Cinema Fund) presents a feature film

"ICEBREAKER"

(based on true events)

Timing: 120 minutes

Genre: disaster movie

Stage director: Nikolai Khomeriki

Director of photography: Fedor Lyass

Production designer: Denis Bauer

Producer: Sergei Kozlov

Co-producer: Anna Kagarlitskaya

Executive Producers: Alexander Kozlov, Vasily Solovyov

General producer: Igor Tolstunov

Petr Fedorov(Andrey Petrov), Sergey Puskepalis(Valentin Sevchenko), Anna Mikhalkova(Galina), Olga Filimonova(Luda) Alexander Yatsenko(Vitalik Tsimbalisty), Alexander Pal(Kolya Kukushkin), Vitaly Khaev(Bannik), Alexey I. Barabash(Eremeev), Dmitry Mulyar(Safonov), Boris Kamorzin(member of the expedition)

Chapter first

Antarctica; the Ross Sea; Soviet polar station "Russian" - board of the icebreaker "Mikhail Gromov" March 7, 1985

Having set up the receiving-transmitting equipment, the radio operator Zorkin “snitched” a radiogram: “Zaliv”, the weather conditions in the area of the Russian polar station are difficult: heavy snowfall and strong wind from the mainland. Wind speed 10–12 meters per second; gusts up to 15".

A few minutes later, a question came from the Baltic Shipping Company: “Is the evacuation of the polar explorers finished?”

“In the process,” Zorkin replied. - As soon as we take on board the last polar explorer, we will immediately fall off towards clean water ... "

The northern hemisphere was preparing for the onset of spring. And in Yuzhny, a cold autumn was expected, and the watch on the Russkaya approached the long-awaited final phase. The Soviet diesel-electric icebreaker "Mikhail Gromov" approached one of the coasts of Antarctica; the employees of the polar station had only to collect the prepared little things, overcome a couple of kilometers on the ice and climb on board.

The old polar explorers called the entire period of the expedition “watch”. As a rule, it was short - up to three months. But sometimes by various reasons dragged on for up to six months and even up to nine months.

The Russkaya station was located not far from the coast - the approaching icebreaker was visible from its small territory against the background of several icebergs frozen into the ice, as in a color photograph. Lyova and Belyaev were the last to leave the station module. They were the last to cross the difficult path to the ship and the last to climb the lowered side ladder.

Where the clamp walked in the summer [Clamp - alluvial ice to the shore; ice fields pressed against the shore.], now solid ice was white. The main group of polar explorers was pushing a small container with equipment mounted on a sled far ahead. The big man Belyaev was dragging two heavy boxes of tools, the clumsy Lyova was carrying a backpack with his personal belongings and the belongings of a comrade behind him, and with his hands he was holding the naughty Frosya, a medium-sized dog of an indeterminate breed.

Finally, the main group with a sled load approached the side of the icebreaker. The loading of the container was quick and without problems. The polar explorers rushed together along the ladder to the deck. Having warmly greeted the sailors who arrived after them, they, accompanied by a sailor, leaked with luggage into the superstructure and, in joyful excitement, moved along the narrow corridors to the housing allotted for them.

The sailor led the guests of the ship to the vacant cabins, opened the doors with the keys and offered to settle down.

Not mansions! - placing the boxes to the left of the entrance, Belyaev cheerfully estimated the size of the dwelling.

But warm, bright and almost like at home! one of his comrades chuckled.

And you wanted an apartment like the captain's? - Laughed from the corridor second. - So that a bedroom, and a study, and your own latrine with a bathroom? ..

The polar explorers who arrived on board the Gromov experienced real euphoria. Still not to worry! So many months lived in a modular building next to the South Pole. In their squalid dwelling there was no TV, no receiver, no normal shower with a warm toilet. The module was divided into three small areas: dining, working and living.

On the one hand - a dream, not a job. Plenty of time for meditation, the purest air, complete absence traffic jams, as well as a kind, responsive team of like-minded people. In good weather, it was possible to walk around the surroundings, although there were no people who wanted to take such walks, because none of the polar explorers around the station would have seen anything new. In the morning, at lunchtime and in the evening, readings were taken from the meteorological control devices located next to the module, and in the evening in the residential area, the men cut themselves into board games. That's all diversity. And this was the other side of the coin - gray, dull and inevitable, like a pension.

But from now on, the joyless life of polar explorers will certainly be painted in new bright colors. A ship with well-appointed cabins, warm latrines and a bright saloon, and even moving towards the house, is a completely different matter.

And only the thirty-five-year-old Leva, loaded with a backpack and a dog, for some reason was sad. In order to get rid of the shoulder burden, he lowered the dog to the floor of the double cabin and, breathing heavily, threw off one strap, then the other. The backpack fell softly to the floor.

Frosya was also nervous. Once in an unfamiliar room, she cautiously sniffed at new smells and whimpered. She was also brought to the station by an icebreaker, but then she was a stupid puppy and remembered almost nothing. Wagging her tail, she imperceptibly jumped out of the ajar door ...

As soon as the polar explorers settled in the cabins, a vibration passed through the ship's hull; the background noise intensified. Experienced people immediately understood: the main diesel engines increased their power, and the icebreaker began to move away from the coast.

So it was.

Senior mechanic Chernogortsev was sitting on his “throne” in the engine room in front of the control panel and was chewing a sandwich when the bell rang, and the arrow of the machine telegraph jumped from the “Stop” sector to the “Small” sector. At the same time, the broadcast speaker duplicated the command in the voice of the second assistant to Captain Bannik:

Small forward.

Understood, small forward, - the "grandfather" boomed and gave the appropriate command to the sailor-engineer on duty.

Then he reached for the lying package, took out the stored sandwich from it and began to chew with appetite. However, the meal was soon interrupted by another call and a revived telegraph arrow.

Full speed ahead! the speaker announced.

Sighing, the old mech arranged a sandwich on the dashboard, wiped his palm on his knee and, reaching for the microphone, reported:

There is full speed ahead! Vaska!

A motorist who was sitting nearby jumped up:

Come on full.

I obey!

Diesels have stepped up. After listening to their work, the head mech decided to continue the meal and extended his hand to the place where he put the half-eaten piece of bread with sliced \u200b\u200bof smoked sausage. But he was not there - the dashboard was empty.

What kind of jokes? .. - Chernogortsev boomed, looking around.

However, no one was found near his "throne". All subordinate minders were busy with their affairs.

Damn it, - muttered the "grandfather" and, crumpling the empty package into a ball, sent it to the trash can.

* * *

"Zaliv", took on board the employees of the polar station "Russian". Heading full speed towards clean water. The radio operator of "Mikhail Gromov" Zorkin, ”another radiogram flew to Leningrad.

“Understood you. What is the ice conditions? - answered with a question from the Baltic Shipping Company.

“The ice conditions are difficult. The progress of the icebreaker is hampered by the thickness of the ice.”

"It's clear. Report progress every hour."

“There is a report in an hour,” the radio operator tapped and switched the station to receive mode. Looking at his watch, he wrote down the time of the next session with a felt-tip pen in a notebook ...

In the wheelhouse of the "Gromov" was the usual work. The sailor on duty was turning the helm. Second Officer Bannik loomed over the map, and the ship's broadcast microphone dangled on a twisted wire beside the table. The captain's senior assistant Eremeev held on to the handrail and silently looked through the thick glass at the solid ice field.

The captain of the Gromov, Andrey Petrov, was also nearby - turning up the collar of his warm jacket, he stood on the open wing of the bridge and examined the white desert through binoculars. The meteorological situation did not please him for several days: the air temperature was dropping, the wind was constantly increasing, the intensity of precipitation in the form of snow did not weaken and worsened visibility.

But the most alarming were two facts.

First, a stable decrease in temperature entailed an increase in the thickness of the ice. The value of this thickness was already approaching the critical one - a few more centimeters, and the Gromov would not be able to break the ice floes with its weight.

Secondly, in the coastal zone of the southern mainland, a decent amount of icebergs frozen into ice was noted. Peacefully slumbering and seemingly small. Above the ice, the ice mountains towered 10–15 meters, and below their “bodies” were seven or eight times larger. So there was no need to talk about “modesty in size” ...

read it[The book "Icebreaker". - Approx. ed.] with great interest. She made a very strong impression on me. The idea itself is exciting, but despite the complete surprise for the public, it is extremely plausible. The publication of such a book - even if it is not fully recognized, but becomes the object of controversy - will be of great historical significance, and not only for our country. You have a clear mindset with unwavering attention. You recall many well-known facts, but forgotten due to human carelessness. You spent a huge research work- and elegantly what is according to Soviet publications.<…>

Well, hold on! It happens quite like that: an undoubted thing - and no one can see it.

All the best and kind to you!

"Icebreaker" is designed for naive simpletons.

To be clear, I have not read this book.

I have read Suvorov with interest and I am not inclined to suspect him of falsification ... Someone may have documents, facts that refute Suvorov's version, but I do not yet have weighty arguments, serious grounds for distrust.

Victor Suvorov's hypothesis demonstrated the main sign of a true scientific theory, namely: all new facts and documents fit into the framework of Suvorov's concept, like cartridges in a clip, accurately and clearly, without destroying the structure, but only increasing its "lethal power". In the twenty-five years that have elapsed since the release of Icebreaker, no alternative concepts have been formulated. There is not a single book, not a single article, no one has ever tried to give a different explanation, a different interpretation of the fundamental facts.

Mark Solonin

This version has already been refuted by history.

Colonel General Dmitry Volkogonov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Corresponding Member Russian Academy sciences, about Viktor Suvorov's book "Icebreaker"

Victor Suvorov for the Russian recent history- what Mendeleev is for Russian vodka. Suvorov cleansed history of the fusel oils of Stalinism, and most importantly, he gave the right degree for breeding. This is important because National history in a concentrated form, it will burn the insides of anyone.

Seva Novgorodtsev

Icebreaker is political psychedelia, cynically aimed at destroying the core of culture.

Colonel A. D. Orlov. Magazine "Russia XXI", 1993, No. 8

The main conclusion of V. Suvorov is correct.

Colonel Valery Danilov, Candidate of Historical Sciences

Suvorov argues with every book, with every article, with every film, with every NATO directive, with every suggestion of the British government, with every Pentagon official, with every academic, with every communist and every anti-communist, with every neo-conservative intellectual, with every Soviet song, poem, novel, every melody that has been heard, written, sung, released, performed in the last 60 years. Even for this alone, "Icebreaker" should be considered the most original work in modern history.

Publishers smashed this fake in millions of copies[Icebreaker. - Approx. ed.] around the country.

Is this the kind of “literature” that Russians yearning for a true story expect from them?

Viktor Anfilov, Doctor of Historical Sciences

This book is written by a professional intelligence officer, not a historian, and this dramatically increases its value.

The Soviet comrades and their Western friends will be furious.

Without a fight, they will not give up the last "blank spot" in their history. Don't listen to them, read Icebreaker! This is an honest book.

Viktor Suvorov's books, including The Icebreaker, are stuffed to the limit with quotations from the memoirs of both military leaders and tactical commanders. But take any of these books from the shelf and you will not find even a hint that the USSR was allegedly preparing an attack on Germany. We are talking about something else: we were going to attack, to smash the aggressor on his own territory, and with little bloodshed.

Viktor Suvorov's opponents today can finally say with a clear conscience: "You won, Galilean ..." However, I'm afraid that for the most part they won't say that anyway. Nevertheless, now ... it can be unequivocally stated: the Suvorov hypothesis about Stalin's planned attack on Hitler on July 6, 1941 has acquired the status of scientific truth.

Rejected as untenable by most Russian and Western historians, this version nevertheless sprouted on domestic soil, primarily for the reason that the mass media actually do not give the opportunity to oppose it with the available reliable documents and facts.

Oleg Rzheshevsky, President of the Association of World War II Historians, Doctor of Historical Sciences. Newspaper "Red Star", April 10, 2001

Perhaps V. Suvorov's book is the first step towards the formation of an integral, internally consistent national identity... Suvorov's daring book is a prediction of shifts that will take place in the self-consciousness of the Russian nation.

Denis Dragunsky

In the responses to this book, in the main, only its individual provisions are considered, while others are left without any mention. V. Suvorov's book, which is not free from weak and controversial provisions, poses a serious and multifaceted problem about the goals and intentions of the Soviet leadership in 1939-1941.

Mikhail Meltyukhov, Research Fellow, All-Russian Research Institute of Documentation and Archiving

Victor Suvorov is so strong and self-confident that, going out to fight against numerous opponents, right hand hides behind his back and invites them to measure with his "one left": he uses only open information. He had enough. Others, "lazy and incurious" or not so reckless, lacked both. For fifty years, no one, except him, has managed to jump beyond the myth created by Stalin about the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people.

Suvorov's "Icebreaker" is a scandalous book. And so the first instinctive reaction of the historian is not to respond to it in any way. To react to such a book is to recognize its right to exist, so historians have chosen to ignore The Icebreaker. And suddenly this monster grew to gigantic proportions... Historians at first did not want to get their hands dirty, they wanted to stay clean, and then it turned out to be too late... This book is stupid and frivolous... My opinion about Suvorov is as follows: he is a seasoned man, the only thing that interests him is money … And I will use a well-known Russian expression here: we have an attempt to “make money on blood”.

Gabriel Gorodetsky, professor of history, director of the Cummings Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies at Tel Aviv University, author of The Icebreaker Myth

* * *

read it[The book "Icebreaker". - Approx. ed.] with great interest. She made a very strong impression on me. The idea itself is exciting, but despite the complete surprise for the public, it is extremely plausible. The publication of such a book - even if it is not fully recognized, but becomes the object of controversy - will be of great historical significance, and not only for our country. You have a clear mindset with unwavering attention. You recall many well-known facts, but forgotten due to human carelessness. You have done a great deal of research work - and what is elegant is that according to Soviet publications.<…>

Well, hold on! It happens quite like that: an undoubted thing - and no one can see it.

All the best and kind to you!

Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Letter to Viktor Suvorov dated October 25, 1987

"Icebreaker" is designed for naive simpletons.

To be clear, I have not read this book.

Grigory Baranovsky. " Independent newspaper”, November 19, 1992

I have read Suvorov with interest and I am not inclined to suspect him of falsification ... Someone may have documents, facts that refute Suvorov's version, but I do not yet have weighty arguments, serious grounds for distrust.

Bulat Okudzhava. "Literaturnaya Gazeta", No. 18–19, May 11, 1994

Victor Suvorov's hypothesis demonstrated the main sign of a true scientific theory, namely: all new facts and documents fit into the framework of Suvorov's concept, like cartridges in a clip, accurately and clearly, without destroying the structure, but only increasing its "lethal power". In the twenty-five years that have elapsed since the release of Icebreaker, no alternative concepts have been formulated. There is not a single book, not a single article, no one has ever tried to give a different explanation, a different interpretation of the fundamental facts.

Mark Solonin

This version has already been refuted by history.

Colonel-General Dmitry Volkogonov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, on Viktor Suvorov's book "Icebreaker"

Viktor Suvorov is to modern Russian history what Mendeleev is to Russian vodka. Suvorov cleansed history of the fusel oils of Stalinism, and most importantly, he gave the right degree for breeding. This is important, because the domestic history in a concentrated form will burn the insides of anyone.

Seva Novgorodtsev

Icebreaker is political psychedelia, cynically aimed at destroying the core of culture.

Colonel A. D. Orlov. Magazine "Russia XXI", 1993, No. 8

The main conclusion of V. Suvorov is correct.

Colonel Valery Danilov, Candidate of Historical Sciences

Suvorov argues with every book, with every article, with every film, with every NATO directive, with every suggestion of the British government, with every Pentagon official, with every academic, with every communist and every anti-communist, with every neo-conservative intellectual, with every Soviet song, poem, novel, every melody that has been heard, written, sung, released, performed in the last 60 years. Even for this alone, "Icebreaker" should be considered the most original work in modern history.

The Times, May 5, 1990

Publishers smashed this fake in millions of copies[Icebreaker. - Approx. ed.] around the country.

Is this the kind of “literature” that Russians yearning for a true story expect from them?

Viktor Anfilov, Doctor of Historical Sciences

This book is written by a professional intelligence officer, not a historian, and this dramatically increases its value.

The Soviet comrades and their Western friends will be furious.

Without a fight, they will not give up the last "blank spot" in their history. Don't listen to them, read Icebreaker! This is an honest book.

Newspaper "Die Welt", March 23, 1989

Viktor Suvorov's books, including The Icebreaker, are stuffed to the limit with quotations from the memoirs of both military leaders and tactical commanders. But take any of these books from the shelf and you will not find even a hint that the USSR was allegedly preparing an attack on Germany. We are talking about something else: we were going to attack, to smash the aggressor on his own territory, and with little bloodshed.

Colonel V. Moroz. Newspaper "Red Star", March 28, 2000

Viktor Suvorov's opponents today can finally say with a clear conscience: "You won, Galilean ..." However, I'm afraid that for the most part they won't say that anyway. Nevertheless, now ... it can be unequivocally stated: the Suvorov hypothesis about Stalin's planned attack on Hitler on July 6, 1941 has acquired the status of scientific truth.

Boris Sokolov, candidate of historical sciences. Nezavisimaya Gazeta, April 5, 1999

Rejected as untenable by most Russian and Western historians, this version nevertheless sprouted on domestic soil, primarily for the reason that the mass media actually do not give the opportunity to oppose it with the available reliable documents and facts.

Oleg Rzheshevsky, President of the Association of World War II Historians, Doctor of Historical Sciences. Newspaper "Red Star", April 10, 2001

Perhaps V. Suvorov's book is the first step towards the formation of an integral, internally consistent national identity... Suvorov's daring book is a prediction of shifts that will take place in the self-consciousness of the Russian nation.

Denis Dragunsky

In the responses to this book, in the main, only its individual provisions are considered, while others are left without any mention. V. Suvorov's book, which is not free from weak and controversial provisions, poses a serious and multifaceted problem about the goals and intentions of the Soviet leadership in 1939-1941.

Mikhail Meltyukhov, Research Fellow, All-Russian Research Institute of Documentation and Archiving

Viktor Suvorov is so strong and self-confident that, going out to fight against numerous opponents, he hides his right hand behind his back and invites them to measure themselves against his “left one”: he uses only open information. He had enough. Others, "lazy and incurious" or not so reckless, lacked both. For fifty years, no one, except him, has managed to jump beyond the myth created by Stalin about the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people.

Grigory Faiman. Russian Thought newspaper (Paris), May 7–13, 1993

Suvorov's "Icebreaker" is a scandalous book. And so the first instinctive reaction of the historian is not to respond to it in any way. To react to such a book is to recognize its right to exist, so historians have chosen to ignore The Icebreaker. And suddenly this monster grew to gigantic proportions... Historians at first did not want to get their hands dirty, they wanted to stay clean, and then it turned out to be too late... This book is stupid and frivolous... My opinion about Suvorov is as follows: he is a seasoned man, the only thing that interests him is money … And I will use a well-known Russian expression here: we have an attempt to “make money on blood”.

Gabriel Gorodetsky, professor of history, director of the Cummings Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies at Tel Aviv University, author of The Icebreaker Myth

Professor Gorodetsky is a typical representative of the class of titled researchers who have lived for years on the study Soviet history but failed to even come close to understanding its central problems. Viktor Suvorov confused these people with the depth of his thought, the breadth of his erudition and academic courage. He aroused their angry jealousy, and for this they take revenge on him, each in his own language.

Dov Kontorer. Newspaper "Vesti-2" (Jerusalem), June 24, 1999

Before us is not just a book, but a historical work ... Among the bureaucratic and banal ideas and people whose books you will never distinguish from each other if you tear out the title pages of the volumes written by them, Viktor Suvorov's works "Icebreaker" and "M Day" are an outstanding phenomenon .

Politicized history puts on us such veils of blindness that one has to be a non-historian in order to know the truth. You need to be not a professional to overturn the familiarity of dogmas. You have to be a solitary hermit to get rid of the pressure of weights that outweigh any scale and always boringly the same opinions of contemporaries. Suvorov opened for us a whole layer of our history. This is his greatest merit.

Yuri Felshtinsky, Professor (Boston, USA)

Turning to Viktor Suvorov, I want to note that we know much of what he writes about. I confess that I am very sorry that Stalin did not have time to order a preemptive strike. History would justify it.

Major General Yu. Solnyshkov. Nezavisimaya Gazeta, December 31, 1993

The role of Victor Suvorov in understanding the history of the Second World War is similar to the role of Nicolaus Copernicus in understanding the structure of the solar system. Copernicus did not have a telescope, Suvorov did not have access to archives. Copernicus looked at the same celestial bodies as millions of other people, and Suvorov read the same books as millions of other people. But Copernicus and Suvorov understood what they saw in their own way. Long live independent thinking!

Mikhail Shauli, translator and publisher of Icebreaker in Israel

Strange as it may sound, it was only after the publication of V. Suvorov's famous book "Icebreaker" that the offensive orientation of the Soviet operational plans and the formation of groupings of troops due to these plans had to be proved.<…> V. Suvorov just proposed to stop considering Soviet generals as idiots who do not understand the elementary foundations of strategy and operational art, and drew attention to the mental, and most importantly, moral merits of Soviet historians. Of course, the "historians" did not forgive him for this. Strange, but the Soviet generals rehabilitated by V. Suvorov did not intercede for him either ...

Mark Solonin. June 23: M-Day. Moscow: Yauza, Eksmo, 2007

For a specialist, the detection of distortions and errors in the vast majority of the main provisions of the Icebreaker, as well as the selection of weighty counterarguments, is not a difficult scientific task. Rezun himself and his owners, apparently, understand this well, which makes them focus on emotions that are usually characteristic of non-professionals.

Vladimir Egorychev. Truth and lies on the scales of history. Grodno, 2010

Suvorov described everything very accurately, but intuitively. Now historians and archivists have proved that Stalin was preparing an offensive war. The blows were supposed to be delivered in August 1941 in the regions of Southern Poland, East Prussia, Budapest ... But Hitler started the war on June 22. There was no plan for a defensive war. They began to "improvise" on the go and "improvised" to Moscow.

Yuri Pivovarov, Doctor of Political Science, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences in an interview with Vladimir Hanelis. Okna supplement to Vesti newspaper (Tel Aviv, Israel), July 28, 2011

What Suvorov did cannot be overestimated. He gave us back our history. With a strong hand, he swept away the garbage that had been poured into our eyes for decades, and the clear picture that opened up as a result left no one indifferent.

Alexander Nikonov, author of the book "Be the first!"

The Rezunov family is very literate, they became officers, they wanted to have easier work, well paid. So the son Volodya was brought up, and he skillfully made a career. The most offensive thing is that this traitor was a Ukrainian. What might his books be about? Who are the textbooks for? It would be better to call everything by its proper name - reports, all falsehood. This, Mr. Rezun, is political impudence - to throw mud at our mighty country. To write such nonsense under someone else's dictation is a terrible shame. I think that Rezun alone would not have thought of this before. V. Rezun is a political liar, he cannot be understood. There, in London, they believe him, but our people will never believe him!

M. Zolotar. Newspaper "Ukraine Center", January 13, 1995

An inconspicuous officer stood alone against the whole world and proved simply and clearly that the Russians - from a soldier to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, from a worker to a minister, from a grain grower to an academician - are not fools. Suvorov proved that the actions of Stalin and his generals were deeply thoughtful and devilishly logical. Everything in which fools found only stupidity, Suvorov found a simple and understandable explanation. He is rejected by his country, nothing surprising and new: Russia has never been able to appreciate its geniuses.

NBC television channel

Guide to the pages of the "Icebreaker"

instead of a preface. Who started World War II?

Everyone is to blame except Soviet Union: the perpetrators of the outbreak of World War II according to Soviet leaders and Soviet propaganda. - Soviet communists accuse all countries of the world of starting World War II in order to hide their shameful role as warmongers. Why did Stalin help Hitler? - "Icebreaker of the Revolution": Hitler clears the way for world communism. “The criminals themselves talk about their crimes: about the sources and evidence on which the book is based.

Chapter 1. Who was the first to declare the need for World War II?

The All-Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks as an organized criminal group. – War is the mother of revolution: the roots of communist militarism. - World War as necessary condition building socialism throughout the world. - The struggle of the Bolsheviks for peace and their struggle for the continuation of the war. - The Decree on Peace as an act of Russia's unconditional surrender to Germany and one of the main reasons for the start of the Civil War.

Chapter 2. Why did Lenin betray Russia?

Brest Peace as a betrayal of one's own people. – Consequences of the Brest Peace: Lenin can fight to strengthen the communist dictatorship at home, and Germany receives huge resources and reserves to continue the war in the west. - The "peacefulness" of the Bolsheviks is beginning to look suspicious. - The Brest-Litovsk peace was concluded not in the interests of Russia, but in the interests of the world revolution. – Peace and war as two tools for achieving political goals used by the Bolsheviks. - Post-war crisis in Europe. - "Peacefulness" in action: on the third day after the end of the First World War, the Red Army launches offensive operations against European states. - On the threshold of the world revolution. – The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a prototype and analogue of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Chapter 3

Lenin's calculation is partially justified: on the ruins of empires, the first communist states arise, strikingly similar to the Bolshevik regime. - Preparation for the establishment of communism in the countries of Europe and Asia. - The failure of attempts to foment world revolution in 1918 and 1919. - The redeployment of the forces of the Red Army to the internal fronts and to the struggle against the peoples of Russia, who did not want communism. - Creation of the headquarters of the world revolution: the Comintern, its goals and methods of work, open and secret. - Communism as an ideology of destruction: everyone who joined the Communist Party thereby agreed to fight against his own country by all means for the bright future of all mankind. - Fighters for a bright future for all mankind in the service of the Kremlin: thanks to the development of the international communist movement, the intelligence services of Soviet Russia suddenly become the most powerful secret organizations in the world. – The Versailles Peace Treaty as one of the prerequisites for the Second World War.

Chapter 4

A new attempt by the Bolsheviks to unleash a revolutionary war for the "liberation" of Europe in the summer of 1920. - "Liberation Campaign" of the Red Army to Warsaw and Berlin. - Creation of the Polish Soviet Socialist Republic, headed by the head of the Soviet secret police Dzerzhinsky and his deputy Unshlikht. – European civilization is on the brink of disaster. - The defeat of the armies of Tukhachevsky near Warsaw. - When an Extra Straw Breaks a Camel's Back: The Role of Strategic Reserves in War. - Tukhachevsky and his "contribution" to the theory of military art. - The main principle of the strategy. – Europe is saved from the communist invasion, the communists postpone the revolution in Europe until 1923. - How the myth of the "genius commander" Tukhachevsky was created.

Chapter 5

Anti-communist uprisings in Soviet Russia in 1920-1921. – Communist attempt to seize power in Germany in 1921. - The New Economic Policy as a short respite between wars to strengthen and consolidate power. – Establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922: the first step towards the creation of the World Soviet Socialist Republic. - Declaration on the formation of the USSR: an open declaration of war on the rest of the world in order to subjugate and include all other states in the USSR. - Armed uprising in Bulgaria in 1923. - A new attempt to seize power in Germany through the hands of the German Communists and Nazis in the autumn of 1923. - The role of Soviet communists in the development of world political terrorism.

Chapter 6. The role of Stalin in the rise of Hitler

The reason for the failure of the revolution in Germany in 1923. - The struggle for power in the leadership of the USSR. - 1925: Stalin's statement about the inevitability of the Second World War. - New war as a prerequisite for the start of a new revolution in Europe. - Stalin plans to organize a crisis in Europe with the hands of Hitler. - The role of Stalin in the seizure of power by the Nazis in Germany. — Trotsky's predictions. – German Nazism as the Icebreaker of the Revolution.

Chapter 7 Goals and cost of industrialization

1927: the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR and the beginning of industrialization. - The development of the Soviet military industry and the production of weapons as the main goal of industrialization. - Myths about the results of the first five-year plans. - The secrets of the Soviet "economic miracle": mass terror, the widespread use of slave labor, the barbaric exploitation of the country's vast resources, advanced Western technology and espionage. - The cost of industrialization. - The battle for bread: the food crisis and its causes. - 1930: the beginning of a merciless war against the peasants, which is called collectivization. - The impossibility of returning to normal human life in a militarized economy as the main reason for collectivization. - "Pumping funds from agriculture to heavy industry." – Famine in the USSR and the demographic losses of the country from collectivization. Why do communists need so many weapons? - The communist world turned out to be worse than the world war: in peacetime, Stalin and his comrades-in-arms exterminated many times more of their fellow citizens for the sake of weapons than the country lost in the First World War. - Was the build-up of Soviet military power dictated by an external threat? - The bulk of the weapons produced in the Soviet Union were not suitable for defense.

Chapter 8

The situation in Europe after the First World War: no one wanted to fight, and those who did, could not fight. - Instead of maintaining peace in Europe, the leaders of the USSR are secretly helping Germany to revive its military power. - Secret aviation school for the training of German military pilots near Lipetsk. - Tank school of the Reichswehr near Kazan. – Joint Soviet-German development, production and testing chemical weapons. - Manufacture of weapons and ammunition for the Reichswehr. - On whose heads the fascist sword forged in the USSR was supposed to fall? – Why does the Soviet Union need the military experience of Germany and German military technologies, if without the creation in the USSR of a base for the revival of German military power, the Second World War would never have started?

Chapter 9. Why did Stalin agree to the division of Poland?

Who and why crushed the separating barrier of neutral states between Germany and the Soviet Union? – How Soviet historians explained the actions of the Soviet Union. - What Stalin had to do to strengthen the country's defense in the current situation and what he actually did. - Stalin's destruction of the barrier of neutral states between the USSR and Germany. - How Stalin himself explained his actions. - "Don't rest on your laurels!"

Chapter 10

How Stalin made Hitler responsible for the start of World War II. France and Great Britain declare war on Germany. - Stalin got the war he wanted: the European countries fought, weakening each other, and the Soviet Union remained neutral and at the same time could count on the help of Western countries. – The results of the Second World War: Stalin became the ruler of a huge anti-Western empire, created by him with the help of Western countries, while maintaining a reputation as a naive, gullible simpleton, and Hitler went down in history as an insidious villain. - Was Stalin going to comply with the non-aggression pact signed with Germany? - "Soon the whole earth will belong to us": Soviet propaganda about the approaching hour of the liberation of Europe. - Hitler started the war with the USSR, without waiting for the blow of the liberation ax in the back.

Chapter 11. When did the Soviet Union enter World War II?

June 22, 1941 as a fake date for the entry of the Soviet Union into World War II, launched by Soviet propaganda. - "The pre-war period", which was not. - "Liberation campaigns" of the Red Army to the west to "strengthen the security of the western borders." - September 1939: "strange war" in the west and a strange "peace" in the east. - The USSR is preparing to introduce universal conscription even before the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. - August 19, 1939 as the new date for the start of World War II and the actual date of the entry of the Soviet Union into it. - Stalin's plan for the "liberation" of Europe, the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on August 19, 1939 and the decision to implement this plan. - The message of the agency "Havas" and the reaction of Stalin. - From words to deeds: Stalin's actions clearly show his intentions. - The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact as the most brilliant victory of Stalin. - Stalin won World War II already on August 23, 1939, even before Hitler entered it. - Hitler understands that he was deceived, and tries to outplay Stalin. - The greatness and genius of Stalin is that he, the main enemy of the West, managed to use the West to protect and strengthen his dictatorship, dividing his opponents and pushing them head-on.

Chapter 12

The purpose of the war according to Tukhachevsky. - "Expanding the basis of war" according to Tukhachevsky and Hitler. - Vladimir Triandafillov, founder of Soviet operational art. – Development of methods for the rapid sovietization of the “liberated” territories. - Creation of Osnaz formations on the basis of the border troops of the NKVD. - A single scenario of the Soviet "liberation campaigns" on the example of a campaign in Poland. - Preparation of the Sovietization of Finland. - Sovietization of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. - "Liberation" of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. - Operations of the NKVD to clear the rear. - Training of personnel for the management of the new "liberated" territories: attestation of party workers and the assignment of military ranks to them.

Chapter 13

Punitive bodies and punitive troops as the two main mechanisms of the punitive machine of the communist dictatorship in the war against its own people. - From the Main Directorate of the Border and Internal Troops of the NKVD of the USSR to the six Main Directorates of the NKVD in charge of troops and military issues: an unprecedented increase in the power of punitive troops after the end of the Great Cleansing. - Main Directorate for the Protection of Railway Structures of the NKVD. - What did the 13th escort division of the NKVD do in the Lvov salient near the German border, and whom did Stalin plan to escort with a whole division? – Development of armored trains in the USSR between the two world wars. - Why do Chekists need armored trains? - The Main Directorate of the Operational Troops of the NKVD and the Separate Motorized Division Osnaz of the NKVD named after Dzerzhinsky. - The composition and armament of a typical separate regiment of operational troops of the NKVD. - Why did Stalin concentrate the forces of the NKVD on the western borders of the USSR. - Why do security officers need howitzer artillery?

Chapter 14. Border Troops of the NKVD in June 1941

Principles of manning the Armed Forces of the USSR. - What did the Soviet border guards do in the last week before the German invasion. - Mass deportation of civilians from the western border regions of the USSR. - Why did the punitive battalions of the Osnaz NKVD remain in the border zone after it was cleared. - A strange choice of location for the 132nd separate escort battalion of the NKVD.

Chapter 15

The purpose of the security strip created between the border and the main defense strip. - How our great-great-grandfathers organized the defense of the country: notches and the Great Notch Line. – Establishment of powerful supply lanes on the western borders of the Soviet Union in the 1920s. - The experience gained by the Red Army as a result of overcoming the supply lines in Poland and Finland, and its subsequent use. - The reasons for the defeat of the 3rd, 4th and 10th armies of the Western Front in the first weeks of the war. - Laying of new railways and roads to the western borders of the USSR in the pre-war period. – The contribution of the Soviet Union to the success of the German blitzkrieg on Eastern Front: how in 1941 the Soviet military leaders helped Hitler reach Moscow. – Why were the Soviet military leaders, who were on the western borders of the USSR on the eve of the war, concerned about the organization of work on the barrier, and not the creation of barriers?

Chapter 16

13 fortified areas of the Stalin line. – The Stalin Line and the Maginot Line: Similarities and Differences. - What could and was Stalin obliged to do to increase the security of the western borders of the USSR after the appearance of a common border between Germany and the Soviet Union? – The cessation of the construction of fortifications on the Stalin Line, their disarmament and destruction in 1939-1941 and the cessation of the production of defensive weapons systems in the USSR: why did Stalin destroy everything that was related to defense?

Chapter 17

The beginning of the construction of a new strip of fortified areas on the new border of the USSR in the summer of 1940. - Why was the Stalin line on the old border destroyed before the construction of the Molotov line was completed? - Why two defensive lines are better than one: who was disturbed by Stalin's line? - The version about the need to transfer weapons from the Stalin line to the Molotov line. - Comparison of the Molotov line with the Stalin line. - The construction of the Molotov line and the destruction of the Stalin line as a riddle of Soviet history. – Principles of defensive and offensive fortification. - Siegfried line.

Chapter 18. Soviet partisans and saboteurs before and after the German attack

guerrilla action as best method fight against a strong opponent. - Partisan war against the Red Army in Finland during the Winter War. - Preparation of Soviet partisan formations and secret bases for them in the 1920s - 1930s and their liquidation in 1939 during the outbreak of World War II. - After June 22, 1941, the partisan movement is created anew. - Why did Colonel Starinov come to Brest on June 21, 1941? – From punishers to diplomats: why, just before the war, Vaupshasov was appointed Soviet consul in Finland.

Chapter 19

Why do we need airborne troops. - Mass training of paratroopers in the Soviet Union in the pre-war years and its price for the country. – Practicing conducting “deep operations” on Soviet maneuvers of the 1930s. - Secret deployment of five Soviet airborne corps in the western regions of the USSR in April 1941. - An unusual fashion to have a German soldier in the role of an orderly, driver or translator, which spread among the Soviet commanders of the airborne troops in early 1941. - Creation in the USSR of the second five airborne corps in May 1941. - Other Soviet airborne units and formations. - What tasks were Soviet paratroopers prepared for?

Chapter 20

How to deliver a million paratroopers behind enemy lines. – Mass enthusiasm for gliding in the USSR in the 1930s and its causes. - The military orientation of Soviet gliding. – Development and mass production of airborne gliders. - Military transport aircraft Douglas DC-3 (S-47) and its Soviet analogue PS-84 (Li-2). - "Special operation of the initial period of the war": the preparation by the Soviet command of a large-scale strategic operation to suppress the enemy's air power at the initial stage of an offensive war. - The only possible scenario for the use of Soviet landing units and formations.

Chapter 21

Features of the territory of the European part of the Soviet Union, which can be used to defend the country. - Why did the grandiose anti-tank ditch named Dnepr not become an obstacle in the way of German tanks. - Kryukovskiy bridge across the Dnieper and its "undermining" in August 1941. – Smolensk gates and their importance in military strategy. – Breakthrough of German troops through the Smolensk gates in the summer of 1941 and its consequences. - The largest in the history of wars, the Kiev and Vyazemsky encirclement of Soviet troops in the fall of 1941 as a result of the unpreparedness of the Red Army to defend the Smolensk Gate. - Attempts to pass off Zhukov's "Memoirs and Reflections" as a reliable version of the history of the Second World War. - The main theses of Zhukov's memoirs. - How to explain the actions of Zhukov as Chief of the General Staff? - Why did the advancing German troops capture the border bridges across the Bug and other rivers without a fight and in complete safety. - Soviet fuel of the German blitzkrieg: who and why moved the strategic reserves of the Red Army to the western borders of the USSR and how did it happen that the Germans reached Moscow on Soviet gasoline and Soviet canned food? – Did the Soviet military leaders need education, experience in warfare and large resources for the defense of the Soviet Union in 1941: simple and effective measures for organizing the defense of the country that were not taken. - The leaders and commanders of the Soviet Union were not preparing the defense of their country, but an attack on Germany.

Chapter 22

Dnieper military flotilla: history of creation and combat use, composition and capabilities in a defensive war. - The disbandment of the flotilla and the creation on its basis of the Danube and Pinsk flotillas. - Conducting hostilities upstream the Danube during the offensive of the Red Army as the only possible option for the combat use of the Danube Flotilla. - An unusual reaction of the command of the Danube military flotilla to the beginning of the Soviet-German war. – Oil as the blood of war and the central issue of Soviet military strategy. - The "liberation" of Bessarabia and Western Bukovina and the concentration of Soviet troops on the border with Romania, not dictated by the goals of defense, as a direct and obvious threat to Germany. Who threatened whom and who provoked whom? Reasons for Hitler's decision to conduct Operation Barbarossa. - The idea of the German plan of attack on the USSR. - Bessarabia as an initial springboard for the subsequent offensive of the Red Army on the Romanian oil-producing regions. - The capture of Bessarabia in 1940 and the concentration of powerful forces here, not suitable for anything but aggression, as Stalin's main mistake.

Viktor Suvorov
Icebreaker

Icebreaker Ts 1

annotation

"Icebreaker" by Viktor Suvorov, according to the London newspaper "The Times", is the most original work of modern history. The book has been translated into 27 languages and went through more than 100 editions. In it, the author offers his own version of the beginning of the Second World War.

Viktor Suvorov
Icebreaker

(Icebreaker-1)

TO MY RUSSIAN READER

I do not agree with a single word that you say, but I am ready to die for your right to say it.
Voltaire

“Viktor Suvorov's opinion in the field of defense is becoming public opinion. He shapes it."
International Defense Review, Geneva, September 1989.

“This book is written by a professional intelligence officer, not a historian, and this dramatically increases its value. The Soviet comrades and their Western friends will be furious. Without a fight, they will not give up the last "blank spot" in their history. Don't listen to them, read Icebreaker! This is an honest book."
"Dee Welt", March 23, 1989

“Suvorov argues with every book, with every article, with every film, with every NATO directive, with every suggestion of the British government, with every Pentagon official, with every academic, with every communist and every anti-communist, with every neo-conservative intellectual, with every Soviet song, poem, novel, with every melody that has been heard, written, sung, released, performed over the past 60 years. Even for this alone, "Icebreaker" should be considered the most original work in modern history.
The Times, May 5, 1990

Forgive me.
If you are not ready to forgive, do not read further than these lines, curse me and my book - without reading. So do many.
I swung at the most sacred thing that our people have, I swung at the only shrine that the people have left - in memory of the War, the so-called "Great Patriotic War". I put this concept in quotation marks and write with a small letter.
Forgive me.

The Second World War is a term that the communists taught us to write with a small letter. And I write this term with a capital letter and prove that the Soviet Union is its main culprit and the main instigator. The Soviet Union has been a participant in World War II since 1939, from its very first day. The communists made up a legend that we were attacked and from that very moment the "great patriotic war" began.
I knock this legend out from under my feet like an executioner knocks out a stool. One must have a cruel heart, or not have one at all, in order to work as an executioner, especially as an executioner who kills the national shrines of the great people of his own people. There is nothing worse than doing the work of an executioner. I took on this role voluntarily. And she drives me to suicide.
I know that in millions of our houses and apartments there are photographs of those who did not return from the war on the walls. These photos hang in my house. I do not want to offend the memory of the millions who died, but tearing the halo of holiness from the war that the communists started for our common misfortune, I seem to involuntarily insult the memory of those who did not return from the war.
Forgive me.
Now Russia has lost the ideology forcibly instilled in it, and therefore the memory of a just war has remained, as it were, the only support of society. I destroy it. Forgive me and let's look for another support.
But do not think that by destroying and insulting the shrines, I find satisfaction in this. "Icebreaker" did not bring me joy. Vice versa. Working on the book devastated me. I have an empty soul, and my brain is full of division numbers. I could not bear such a book in my mind for a long time. It SHOULD be written. But for this it was necessary to flee the country. To do this, one had to become a traitor. I became it.
This book has brought so much grief to my home! My father, Rezun Bogdan Vasilyevich, went through the war from the first to the very last day, he was wounded several times, and severely, almost fatally. I made him the father of a traitor. How does he live with it? I don't know - I don't have the courage to imagine it... Above all, I destroyed his idea of the war as a great, liberation, patriotic war. My father was my first victim. I asked him for forgiveness. He didn't forgive me. And I again ask for forgiveness from my father. Before all Russia. On the knees.
This book brought grief to everyone who was close to me. To write Icebreaker, I sacrificed everything I had: for the sake of the book of my life, which gives me nothing but sleepless nights and violent attacks of criticism. Now "Icebreaker" is recognized in many countries. But it wasn't always like that...
My sentences are fully deserved by me. I do not ask for forgiveness for my betrayal and I do not want forgiveness for it. Sorry for the book. My death sentences are just to the last point. And let not those who are ordered to carry them out bother: I will punish myself.
I'm not afraid of death. It was terrible to die, I did not write this book without expressing what was revealed to me. It was terrible when all the publishers of Russian books in the West rudely or politely refused me. The book has already been published in eleven languages. In Germany it went through eight editions, in Poland three editions for May 1992 alone. But in Russian, not a single publisher, starting from 1980, did not dare to publish its full text. That was scary. Now the first of three volumes is finally coming out. Russian, and therefore I am no longer afraid of anything. Scold the book, scold me. Damn.
But - cursing - try to understand and - forgive.
Many have forgiven my bold book, my challenge to society. There were no brave men among foreign publishers of Russian books, but the chapters from the Icebreaker published free Russian newspapers and magazines. I was immediately and completely supported by human rights activists Vladimir Bukovsky, Eduard Kuznetsov, Irina Ratushinskaya, Igor Gerashchenko. Arina and Alexander Ginzburg, Irina Alekseevna Ilovaiskaya, editor-in-chief of Russkaya Mysl, a newspaper that has been publishing chapters from my book for seven years, a glorious triumvirate from the BP-BBC Russian Service, consisting of Leonid Vladimirov, Vsevolod Novgorodtsev, Alexei Leonidov. In difficult years. I have been supported by many people in my life, and I am grateful to each of them. I had to break through the Icebreaker, prove and insist, I had to take time and nerves from many. Defending my idea, I was forced to snap, offend and insult opponents and opponents, and sometimes tear their throats. To all those whom I unwittingly offended, once again I ask you to forgive me.
I am a traitor, a traitor... They do not forgive such people, but I still ask:
FORGIVE ME.
Viktor SUVOROV, 21 October. 1992, Bristol.

WHO STARTED THE SECOND WORLD WAR?

... The West, with its imperialistic cannibals, has become a hotbed of darkness and slavery. The task is to break this hearth for the joy and consolation of the working people of all countries.
I. Stalin, 1918

This question is answered in different ways. There is no consensus. The Soviet government, for example, this issue changed his mind many times.
On September 18, 1939, the Soviet government announced in an official note that Poland was responsible for the war.
On November 30, 1939, Stalin in the Pravda newspaper named more "culprits": "England and France attacked Germany, taking responsibility for the current war."
On May 5, 1941, in a secret speech to graduates of military academies, Stalin named another culprit - Germany.
After the end of the war, the circle of "culprits" expanded. Stalin declared that the Second World War was started by all the capitalist countries of the world. Before World War II, all sovereign states of the world, except for the USSR, were considered capitalist according to the Stalinist division. According to Stalin, the bloodiest war in the history of mankind was started by the governments of all countries, including Sweden and Switzerland, but excluding the Soviet Union.
The Stalinist point of view that everyone is to blame, with the exception of the USSR, stabilized for a long time in communist mythology. During the times of Khrushchev and Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko, accusations against the whole world were repeatedly repeated. During Gorbachev's time, much changed in the Soviet Union, but not Stalin's point of view about the perpetrators of the wars. So, in Gorbachev's times, the chief historian Soviet army, Lieutenant General P. A. Zhilin repeats: “The culprits of the war were not only the “imperialists of Germany, but of the whole world” (“Red Star”, September 24, 1985).
I have the courage to say that the Soviet communists accuse all countries of the world of unleashing the Second World War only in order to hide their shameful role as arsonists.
Let's remember that after the First World War, Germany lost the right to have a powerful army and offensive weapons, including tanks, heavy artillery, combat aircraft. On their own territory, the German commanders were deprived of the opportunity to prepare for the conduct of aggressive wars. The German commanders did not violate the prohibitions until a certain time and did not prepare for aggressive wars on their training grounds, they did it ... on the territory of the Soviet Union. Stalin provided the German commanders with everything they were not entitled to: tanks, heavy artillery, combat aircraft. Stalin provided German commanders with classrooms, training grounds, and shooting ranges. Stalin gave German commanders access to the most powerful Soviet tank factories in the world: look, remember, adopt.
If Stalin wanted peace, he would have had to interfere in every possible way with the revival of the strike power of German militarism: after all, then Germany would have remained a militarily weak country. In addition to a militarily weak Germany in Europe, there would be Britain without a powerful land army; France, which spent almost its entire military budget on purely defensive programs, erecting a semblance of the Great Wall of China along its borders, and other countries that were weaker militarily and economically. In such a situation, Europe would not be so fire hazardous at all ... But Stalin, for some reason, does not spare money, effort and time to revive the German striking power. What for? Against who? Of course, not against yourself! Then against whom? There is only one answer: against the rest of Europe.
But to revive a powerful army in Germany and an equally powerful military industry is only half the battle. Even the most aggressive army itself does not start wars. We need above all a fanatical, insane leader, ready to start a war. And Stalin did a lot to ensure that just such a leader was at the head of Germany. How Stalin created Hitler, how he helped him seize power and strengthen himself is a separate big topic. I am preparing a book on this subject. But we will talk about this ahead, and now we will only remember that Stalin stubbornly and persistently pushed the Nazis who came to power to war. The pinnacle of these efforts is the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. With this pact, Stalin guaranteed Hitler freedom of action in Europe and essentially opened the floodgates of World War II. When we commemorate with an unkind word the dog that bit half of Europe, let's not forget Stalin, who raised the dog and then let him off the chain. Even before he came to power, Soviet leaders called Hitler a secret title - the Icebreaker of the Revolution. The name is accurate and capacious. Stalin understood that Europe was only vulnerable in the event of war, and that the Icebreaker of the Revolution could make Europe vulnerable. Adolf Hitler was unknowingly clearing the way for world communism. With lightning wars, Hitler crushed the Western democracies, while dispersing and dispersing his forces from Norway to Libya. The icebreaker of the Revolution committed the greatest atrocities against the world and humanity, and by its actions gave Stalin the moral right at any moment to declare himself the Liberator of Europe, replacing the brown concentration camps with red ones. Stalin understood that the war is won not by the one who enters it first, but by the one who enters last, and graciously ceded to Hitler the shameful right to be the instigator of the war, while he himself patiently waited for the moment “when the capitalists squabble among themselves” (Stalin, speech 3 December 1927).
I consider Hitler a criminal and a scoundrel. I consider him a cannibal of European proportions. But if Hitler was a cannibal, it does not follow at all that Stalin was a vegetarian. A lot has been done to expose the crimes of Nazism and to find the executioners who committed grave atrocities under its flag. This work must be continued and strengthened. But exposing the Nazis, we are obliged to expose the Soviet Communists, Who encouraged the Nazis to commit crimes and intended to use the results of their crimes.
In the Soviet Union, the archives have been thoroughly cleaned for a long time, and what remains is almost inaccessible to researchers. I was lucky enough to work quite a bit in the archives of the USSR Ministry of Defense, but I quite consciously almost never use archival materials. I have a lot of materials from the German military archives, but I practically do not use them either. My main source is open Soviet publications. Even this is quite enough to put the Soviet communists against the wall of shame and put them in the dock next to the German fascists, or even ahead.
My main witnesses: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, all Soviet marshals during the war and many leading generals. The Communists themselves admit that with Hitler's hands they unleashed a war in Europe and were preparing a surprise attack on Hitler himself in order to seize the Europe he had destroyed. The value of my sources lies in the fact that the criminals themselves speak about their crimes.
I know that the Communists will have many defenders. Gentlemen, I took the communists at their word and let them defend themselves.
Victor SUVOROV, December 1987, Bristol

Chapter 1
THE WAY TO HAPPINESS

We are the party of a class marching on the conquest of the world.
M.Frunze

Marx and Engels predicted a world war and its duration for at least 15, 20, 50 years. This prospect did not scare them. The authors of The Communist Manifesto did not call on the proletariat to prevent the war; on the contrary, for Marx and Engels the coming world war was desirable. War is the mother of revolution, world war is the mother of world revolution. The results of the world war, Engels believed, would be "general exhaustion and the creation of conditions for the final victory of the working class."
Marx and Engels did not live to see the world war, but they found a successor - Lenin. At the very beginning of the First World War, Lenin's party advocated the defeat of their own country. Let the enemy destroy and ruin the country, let him overthrow the government, let him trample on national shrines: the proletarians, as you know, have no fatherland. In a devastated, defeated country, it is much easier to "turn an imperialist war into a civil war." So let the storm come on!
Lenin hoped that in other countries there would be real Marxists who would be able to rise up with "supra-national interests" to fight against their own governments in order to turn the world war into a world civil war. But there were no such in other countries, and therefore the prospect of a world revolution moved into the unattainable future. Nothing. If not a world revolution, then at least the first step towards it. Already in the autumn of 1914, Lenin adopted a kind of minimum program: if as a result of the First World War the world revolution does not happen, then at least tear off a tuft. Not all over the world, but at least in one country. It doesn't matter which one. First, capture one country, and then use it as a base for preparing a new world war and developing a revolution in other countries. “The victorious proletariat of this country will stand up against the rest of the world”, inciting unrest and uprisings in other countries “or directly opposing them with armed force” (“On the slogan of the United States of Europe”).
By putting forward a minimum program on the seizure of power in one country, Lenin did not lose perspective either. For Lenin, as for Marx, the world revolution remains a guiding star. But according to the minimum program, as a result of the First World War, a revolution is possible in only one country. How then will the world revolution take place? As a result? In 1916, Lenin gives a clear answer to this question: as a result of the SECOND IMPERIALIST WAR ("The military program of the proletarian revolution").
Maybe I'm wrong, but after reading much of what Hitler wrote, I found absolutely no indication that Adolf Schicklgruber dreamed of World War II in 1916. But Lenin dreamed. Moreover, Lenin already at that time theoretically substantiated the need for such a war to build socialism throughout the world.
Events are developing rapidly. AT next year there was a revolution in Russia. Lenin hurries to Russia. Here, in a whirlpool of confusion and permissiveness, he and his small but military-organized party seize state power with a sudden coup. Lenin's moves are simple but insidious. At the first moment of the formation of the communist state, Lenin announced the "Decree on Peace". This is very good for propaganda. But Lenin needs peace not for peace, but in order to stay in power. After the decree, millions of armed soldiers poured home from the front. With the decree on “peace”, Lenin turned the imperialist war into a civil war, plunged the country into chaos, consolidating the power of the communists and gradually conquering territories and subordinating them to himself. The soldiers pouring in from the front played the role of an icebreaker that broke Russia. result civil war there was the “general exhaustion” desired by Marx, which allowed Lenin to retain and strengthen power.
Lenin's moves in foreign policy no less insidious. And here he uses the same principle: you fight, while I watch from the sidelines, and when you weaken each other ...
In March 1918, Lenin concluded the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and its allies.