Soviet Information Bureau during the Great Patriotic War (source analysis). Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformburo)

TALLINN, June 24 - Sputnik. The Soviet Information Bureau was established on June 24, 1941 to inform the public of foreign countries about the events taking place on the Soviet-German front and about the work of the Soviet rear. Its successors were the largest international agencies— Novosti Press Agency, RIA Novosti and MIA Rossiya Segodnya.

Sputnik Belarus correspondent Vera Dashkevich visited the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War and learned how news was created and distributed during the war.

"What's happening?" and "Where are ours?" - these issues were on the agenda in the first hours of the war, and then they did not lose their relevance. It was important for people - especially in the occupied territories - to know where the front was and whether there was hope.

To satisfy the information hunger, already on June 24, 1941, the Soviet Information Bureau was created. On the radio it sounded: "Moscow is speaking! From the Soviet Information Bureau ..."

Belarusian Pruzhany, Ruzhany and Kobrin, Lithuanian Kaunas and Vilnius were already occupied by the enemy by this time. Minsk was occupied on June 28.

Handwritten summaries

“When the occupation began, one of the first bans was to ban the use of radios. Radios had to be handed over. Failure to do so was punishable by death by shooting. But I wanted to know, especially in 1941, because the Germans had already said that Moscow was captured,” Sputnik said Head of the Department of Written and Figurative Sources of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War Galina Pavlovskaya.

Those who managed to hide the receiver and eavesdrop on something recorded reports and, if possible, pecked at their handwritten notes in the occupied villages and cities.

“Leaflets, of course, were mercilessly torn down and destroyed. Therefore, since 1941, unfortunately, nothing has survived,” Pavlovskaya said.

On the other hand, thin sheets of paper from the 42nd, printed on a typewriter under carbon paper, and full-fledged newspapers and leaflets with reports of the Sovinformburo, which the partisans had by 1943, already printed in portable partisan printing houses, have survived.

Printed on cards, wallpaper and wrapping paper

There wasn't enough paper. Therefore, they printed on the reverse side of the wallpaper, and on the cards, and on wrapping paper. In the course were wrappers from "Kommunarkovskiye" sweets, and match labels.

“The hunger for information was especially acute until 1943, when the partisan printing presses began to work actively. But then 160 newspapers were published throughout Belarus, which is more than was published before the war. Each district had its own newspaper during the war,” Pavlovskaya said. .

The newspaper is, of course, loudly said. Most often it was an A4 sheet, where the lion's share was occupied by the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the reports of the Soviet Information Bureau. But there was also information of its own - reports on partisan operations.

“The leaflets that dealt with the retreat often contained warnings for the civilian population - to hide, go to the forests, because the Nazis, retreating, could drive them to Germany. But you understand that for storing such a leaflet or such a newspaper in the occupied territory you can was seriously affected," the museum employee noted.

At first, nothing good was expected from the news of the Sovinformburo, the legendary announcer of the Belarusian radio Ilya Kurgan recalled on the air of Sputnik radio. Then these radio news, which began with the invariable "Moscow is speaking!" became, in his words, "the light in the window."

Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformburo) January 15th, 2013

"From the Soviet Information Bureau". During the war years, radio broadcasts began with these words. Frozen at loudspeakers - at work, on the streets, at home - millions of people across the country, holding their breath, listened to reports about the situation at the front, about courage and heroism. Soviet soldiers. Established on the third day after the start of the war by decision of the Central Committee of the party and the government, the new agency carried out the task assigned to it: "... to cover international events, military operations on the fronts and the life of the country" in the press and on the radio.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it became necessary to intensify propaganda and explanatory work in the USSR and in countries of anti-fascist orientation. To solve this problem, the Council People's Commissars and the highest party body - the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks - the Soviet Information Bureau was created.

To solve this problem at the highest executive and administrative body Soviet state, his government - the Council of People's Commissars (SNK of the USSR) and the highest party body - the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks - created the Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformburo, SIB).

It was an information political body formed by the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated June 24, 1941 "On the Creation and Tasks of the Soviet Information Bureau" to manage media coverage of military operations on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, compiling and publishing military summaries on the materials of the main command, as well as coverage of internal events in the USSR and international life.

(Military Encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing. Moscow. in 8 volumes. 2004)

Alexander Shcherbakov, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, First Secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, was appointed head of the SIS. The bureau included the head of TASS, Yakov Khavinson, the head of the All-Union Radio Committee, Polikarpov, and a group of workers from the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

The structure of the Soviet Information Bureau included the military department, the translation department, the propaganda and counter-propaganda department, the international affairs department, the literary department, etc.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Information Bureau supervised the work of war correspondents, was engaged in information support for the embassies and consulates of the USSR abroad, foreign broadcasting corporations and radio stations, telegraph and newspaper agencies, societies of friends of the USSR, newspapers and magazines of various directions.

The duties of the SIS included compiling and publishing reports on the materials of the High Command (produced mainly by the General Staff and then by a special group that worked in the apparatus of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to collect additional facts and compile information for the main summary of the General Staff) and inform the public foreign countries about the events taking place on the Soviet-German front and about the work of the Soviet rear.

Reports of the Information Bureau were necessarily delivered to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. In the propaganda work of the SIS there was another direction, which was given great importance. These are leaflets with appeals to German soldiers, which were prepared jointly with the main political department of the Red Army.

The work of the Soviet Information Bureau during the Second World War. Video archive

From October 14, 1941 to March 3, 1942, the SIS was in Kuibyshev, from where reports were transmitted to regional newspapers. They usually consisted of two parts: from information from the Supreme High Command following the results of each day: about destroyed aircraft, tanks, enemy manpower. These reports were supplemented by news received from correspondents of central and front-line newspapers, correspondents of radio and TASS.

The SIB had an extensive network of organs and permanent correspondents at the fronts and navies, maintained close contact with party organs in the country and the Armed Forces, and with military command and control agencies.

At that time, the SIB staff consisted of about 80 people. These were famous Soviet writers, journalists, public figures and own correspondents. A literary group was formed as part of the Soviet Information Bureau, which included Vera Inber, Valentin Kataev, Evgeny Petrov, Boris Polevoy, Konstantin Simonov, Nikolai Tikhonov, Alexei Tolstoy, Alexander Fadeev, Konstantin Fedin, Korney Chukovsky, Mikhail Sholokhov, Ilya Ehrenburg and many others . The role of Ilya Ehrenburg was especially significant - during the war years he wrote more than three hundred articles for the SIS, which invariably caused a wide response both in the USSR and in the West. Sovinformburo war correspondent Yevgeny Petrov (one of the founders of The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf) died in the line of duty in 1942.

Under the direct jurisdiction of the Soviet Information Bureau were anti-fascist committees: the All-Slavic Committee, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Scientists, the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth and the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Women.

(APN from Sovinformburo to RIA Novosti, FSUE RIA Vesti Publishing House, 2001, pp. 13, 18, 19)

Through 1171 newspapers, 523 magazines and 18 radio stations in 23 countries of the world, the Soviet Information Bureau introduced readers and listeners of foreign countries to the struggle Soviet army and the people against fascism.

Programs of the Soviet Information Bureau "In last hour"," Reports of the Sovinformburo "," Letters from the front and to the front ", etc. listened to the whole country.

Operational reports of the SIS were issued daily from June 25, 1941 to May 15, 1945. In total, more than two thousand front-line reports were issued during the war years.

Yury Levitan usually read the reports on the radio, whose voice became a symbol of the most important government messages. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, millions of people froze at the radio every day at the words of Levitan "From the Soviet Information Bureau ..."

Front reports for newspapers were transmitted from 5 to 6 in the morning, while the announcer read the text slowly, and spelled the names of the settlements, so it was not difficult to write down the text. Sovinformburo reports were the front-page materials of Soviet newspapers. At that time, not every village had radio stations, and they worked with great interruptions, and then the newspaper carried its word.

Information bureau messages were recorded and reproduced by people, read out in work collectives. They were even painted. The famous artist Alexander Volkov created the painting "At the Sovinformburo Report", which depicts people eagerly reading messages from the front. This canvas entered the history of Soviet art of the war period.

Sovinformburo reports were published until the very last days of the Great Patriotic War. They were discontinued only after unconditional surrender fascist Germany.

The last operational report of the Sovinformburo came out on May 15, 1945. Then Yuri Levitan announced on Moscow Radio: "Reception of prisoners German soldiers completed on all fronts.

The difficult conditions of the war years did not allow recording on magnetic tape reports, messages from the Sovinformburo broadcast live. To preserve these historical materials, in the 60-70s. 20th century they were again voiced and recorded on magnetic tape by the announcer of the All-Union Radio, People's Artist of the USSR Yuri Levitan. During research work the editors of the radio fund were able to find and save a unique record of Levitan's message about the completion of the Berlin operation and the capture of the capital of Germany, the city of Berlin, on May 2, 1945.

By June 1944, the Soviet Information Bureau was reorganized into 11 departments, employing up to 215 people. At the same time, a special bureau for propaganda to foreign countries was created. In 1946, the staff of the SIB increased to 370 people.

In 1946, in accordance with the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of October 9, 1946, the Soviet Information Bureau was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The main attention of the Soviet Information Bureau after the end of the war was focused on covering the internal and foreign policy USSR abroad and events in the countries of people's democracy. For the work of the Soviet Information Bureau on the publication of literary materials about the life of the USSR in foreign countries, its representative offices abroad were established.

In 1953, in accordance with the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of March 28, 1953, the Soviet Information Bureau became part of the USSR Ministry of Culture as the Main Directorate.

In March 1957, the Soviet Information Bureau was transferred to the jurisdiction of the State Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

By a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU of January 5, 1961, the Soviet Information Bureau was liquidated and the Press News Agency (APN) was created on its basis, which became the leading information and journalistic body of Soviet public organizations.

From June 24, 1941, until May 9, 1945, every day of millions of Soviet citizens began and ended with the words: "From the Soviet Information Bureau ..."

The Great Patriotic War confirmed that the word is no less effective weapon than machine guns and tanks. In the list of enemies of the Third Reich, one of the first was the name of Levitan ...

About how the first Soviet news agency was created, how it resisted German propaganda at home and abroad, and how it developed after the war - in the program “Made by the USSR” - “From the Soviet Information Bureau”.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War on June 22, 1941, the emergency of the current situation made it necessary to intensify propaganda and explanatory work both in the USSR and in countries of anti-fascist orientation. To solve this problem, under the highest executive and administrative body of the Soviet state, its government - the Council of People's Commissars (SNK of the USSR) and the highest party body - the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks - the Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformburo, SIB) was created.

The information political body was formed by the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated June 24, 1941 "On the Creation and Tasks of the Soviet Information Bureau" to manage media coverage of military operations on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, to compile and publish military reports based on the materials of the Main command, as well as coverage of internal events in the USSR and international life.

(Military Encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing. Moscow. in 8 volumes. 2004)

Alexander Shcherbakov, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, First Secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, was appointed head of the SIS. The bureau included the head of TASS, Yakov Khavinson, the head of the All-Union Radio Committee, Dmitry Polikarpov, and a group of workers from the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

The structure of the Soviet Information Bureau included a military department, a translation department, a propaganda and counter-propaganda department, a department of international affairs, a literary department, and others.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Information Bureau managed the work of war correspondents, was engaged in information support for the embassies and consulates of the USSR abroad, foreign broadcasting corporations and radio stations, telegraph and newspaper agencies, societies of friends of the USSR, newspapers and magazines of various directions.

Reports of the Information Bureau were necessarily delivered to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

In the propaganda work of the SIS there was another direction, which was given great importance. These are leaflets with appeals to German soldiers, which were prepared jointly with the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army.

From October 14, 1941 to March 3, 1942, the SIB was in Kuibyshev, from where reports were transmitted to regional newspapers. They usually consisted of two parts: from information from the Supreme High Command following the results of each day: about destroyed aircraft, tanks, enemy manpower. These reports were supplemented by news received from correspondents of central and front-line newspapers, correspondents of radio and TASS.

The SIB had an extensive network of organs and permanent correspondents at the fronts and navies, and maintained close contact with party organs in the country and the Armed Forces, and with military command and control organs.

At that time, the SIB staff consisted of about 80 people. These were well-known Soviet writers, journalists, public figures, as well as their own correspondents. As part of the Soviet Information Bureau, a literary group was formed, which included Vera Inber, Valentin Kataev, Evgeny Petrov, Boris Polevoy, Konstantin Simonov, Nikolai Tikhonov, Alexei Tolstoy, Alexander Fadeev, Konstantin Fedin, Korney Chukovsky, Mikhail Sholokhov, Ilya Ehrenburg and many others . The role of Ilya Ehrenburg was especially significant - during the war years he wrote more than three hundred articles for the SIS, which invariably caused a wide response both in the USSR and in the West. Sovinformburo war correspondent Yevgeny Petrov (one of the creators of The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf) died in the line of duty in 1942.

(APN from Sovinformburo to RIA Novosti, FSUE RIA Vesti Publishing House, 2001, pp. 13, 18, 19)

Through 1171 newspapers, 523 magazines and 18 radio stations in 23 countries of the world, the Sovinformburo acquainted readers and listeners of foreign countries with the struggle of the Soviet Army and the people against fascism.

The programs of the Sovinformburo "At the Last Hour", "Reports of the Sovinformburo", "Letters from the Front and to the Front", etc. were listened to by the whole country.

Operational reports of the SIS were issued daily from June 25, 1941. Yury Levitan usually read the reports on the radio, whose voice became a symbol of the most important government messages. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, millions of people froze at the radio every day at the words of Levitan "From the Soviet Information Bureau ..."

Information bureau messages were recorded and reproduced by people, read out in work collectives. The famous artist Alexander Volkov created the painting "At the Sovinformburo Report", which depicts people eagerly reading messages from the front. This canvas entered the history of Soviet art of the war period.

Sovinformburo reports were published until the very last days of the Great Patriotic War. They stopped producing only after the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany.

The last operational report of the Soviet Information Bureau was published on May 15, 1945. Then, on the Moscow radio, Yuri Levitan said: "The reception of captured German soldiers on all fronts is over."

In total, over two thousand front-line reports were heard during the war years.

The difficult conditions of the war years did not allow recording on magnetic tape reports, messages from the Sovinformburo broadcast live. To preserve these historical materials, in the 60-70s. 20th century they were again voiced and recorded on magnetic tape by the announcer of the All-Union Radio, People's Artist of the USSR Yuri Levitan. In the course of research work, the editors of the radio fund were able to find and preserve a unique record of Levitan's message about the completion of the Berlin operation and the capture of the capital of Germany, the city of Berlin, on May 2, 1945.

In 1946, in accordance with the decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of October 9, 1946, the Soviet Information Bureau was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The main attention of the Soviet Information Bureau after the end of the war was focused on covering the domestic and foreign policy of the USSR abroad and events in the countries of people's democracy. For the work of the Soviet Information Bureau on the publication of literary materials about the life of the USSR in foreign countries, its representative offices were established.

In 1953, in accordance with the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of March 28, 1953, the Soviet Information Bureau, as the Main Directorate, became part of the USSR Ministry of Culture. In March 1957, the Soviet Information Bureau was transferred to the jurisdiction of the State Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

During the night of February 17, offensive battles of our troops against the Nazi troops took place.

Our fighters, operating on one of the sectors of the Western Front, destroyed 6 enemy tanks, 84 carts with military equipment, a mortar battery, 22 machine guns and blew up large ammunition depots. The Germans lost 557 soldiers and officers killed and up to 300 wounded. On another sector of the front, in the battle for the height of N., our rifle unit destroyed over 200 enemy soldiers and officers.

Our units operating in separate sectors of the Leningrad Front, in two days of fighting with the enemy, destroyed 3 German bunkers, 14 dugouts, destroyed 6 machine guns, several carts with ammunition and captured 12 machine guns, 2 mortars, many rifles and machine guns, 620 mines, 500 hand grenades, 34,000 rifle cartridges, communications property and other trophies. The Germans lost up to 1,500 soldiers and officers killed.

Our units, operating on one of the sectors of the Southern Front, destroyed 7 German tanks, 5 guns and many other weapons during the day of fighting with the enemy. The enemy lost 300 soldiers and officers killed. In another section, a German company tried to attack our positions near point N., but was defeated and dispersed.

One Soviet unit, having successfully repelled an enemy attempt to counterattack our positions, completely defeated the 7th company of the 1st regiment of the 1st German infantry division.

A large detachment of partisans under the command of Comrade. R., operating in one of the districts of the Smolensk region occupied by the Germans, fought for several hours with the Nazis in the D. area. The Germans lost about a hundred soldiers and officers killed. The 18-year-old partisan S. bravely fought with enemies. With well-aimed fire from a light machine gun, he repelled numerous German attacks and retreated only when he had used up all the cartridges. During its activity, the partisan detachment has tripled.

The captured corporal of the 4th company of the 461st regiment of the 252nd German division, Richard Mirtsev, said: “There were 35 Poles in our company. Not wanting to fight against Russia, they all, one by one, voluntarily surrendered. I am the last of these 35. Now there is not a single Pole left in the 4th company.”

A letter from his wife from Helsinki was found near the murdered corporal of the Finnish army. She wrote: “Be very careful... Why don't you drop your weapons and leave? Is this massacre so terrible? Why are the Finnish people driven to slaughter? Why do we need "great Finland"? Why are the Finnish people so blind and allow themselves to be exterminated because of the German masters?

Leaving the village of Eltsy, Kalinin region, under the blows of the Soviet units, the Nazis burned 285 houses. German bandits shot and tortured many villagers, including women and children.

When our troops were occupying the village of Makarovo, Lotoshinsky district, Moscow region, the mutilated corpse of a Red Army soldier Nachevny Grigory Petrovich was found. Both ears and nose were cut off from the victim of the Nazi executioners, there were several stab wounds on the face, the fingers of the left hand were turned out of the joints and crushed, all the fingers on the right leg were cut off, the stomach was torn open, left-hand side chest pierced with a bayonet.

Young turners of the plant named after Dimitrov (Baku) Akha Ragim Akhmedov and Biryukov perform 6-7 norms daily, the turner Sbrodov gives 9 norms per shift.

During February 17, our troops fought offensive battles with the enemy, continued to move forward and occupied several settlements.

On February 16, 17 aircraft were shot down in air battles, 1 aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft artillery fire, and 5 enemy aircraft were destroyed at airfields. Our losses are 10 aircraft.

On February 16, parts of our aviation destroyed and damaged 22 German tanks, 3 armored vehicles, 46 field guns, 22 mortars, 300 vehicles with troops and cargo, 120 carts with ammunition, 3 anti-aircraft machine gun points, an ammunition depot was blown up, 11 railway cars were broken, a railway track was destroyed in a number of places, dispersed and partly destroyed 4 enemy infantry battalions.

Having knocked out the enemy from the village of Zakharovo, the fighters of one guards motorized rifle unit ( Western Front) captured 8 enemy guns, 6 mortars, 10 machine guns, 450 rifles, 70,000 rounds of ammunition, 150 boxes of mines, 1,000 rockets and other trophies. The Nazis suffered big losses. In another section, a unit under the command of Comrade. Terentyeva in the battle for the village of P. destroyed up to 160 enemy soldiers and officers, while losing 7 fighters. A group of scouts from this unit during a surprise night attack captured three and destroyed 25 enemy soldiers.

Great damage to the manpower and equipment of the German invaders is inflicted by artillerymen operating on one of the sectors of the Southwestern Front. In one day of fighting, the artillerymen suppressed 10 guns, 12 enemy machine guns, 10 mortars and destroyed 4 tanks, 3 guns, 9 heavy machine guns, 11 mortars, destroyed 21 enemy wood-and-earth firing points. Artillery fire destroyed at least 800 German soldiers and officers.

Three Red Army submachine gunners TT. Miskov, Vladimirsky and Zhurin, having let the enemy infantrymen who went on the counterattack to a close distance, opened fire on them. Having lost 50 soldiers killed and wounded, the Germans retreated.

Ruthlessly crushing the Nazi invaders detachment of Smolensk partisans under the command of comrade. Q. Recently, a partisan detachment set up an ambush on the way to the village, where German soldiers were continuously arriving. Mining separate sections roads, the partisans met the approaching column of German infantry with machine-gun and rifle fire. There were many enemy corpses left on the road. The partisans took 13 carts with military equipment with them. Only in a few battles with the Nazi invaders did the partisan detachment of Comrade. V. destroyed 149 German soldiers, 9 officers, 5 vehicles, 3 tank trucks with gasoline, captured 31 rifles, 2 machine guns, 4 machine guns. The partisans blew up 19 bridges behind enemy lines.

The commander of the 189th German infantry regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Reinhold Preske, together with a group of half-frozen soldiers, surrendered to the Red Army. Preske said: “In December, the 189th regiment was hastily transferred from France to the Soviet-German front. In January we arrived at Andreapol and were ordered to take the city of Peno. In the first battle, up to 80 percent of the regiment's personnel were destroyed. Almost the entire command staff was out of action. Machine guns, mortars were either captured by the Russians or crushed by Soviet tanks. The rest of the regiment fled or surrendered. I went into the forest with a detachment of 46 people. On January 20, 8 people died of cold and hunger. On January 21, we lost another 14 people. The next day, only 13 people remained in the detachment. On January 23, two more soldiers died, and two went insane. On the same day, with the remaining nine soldiers, I went to the nearest village and surrendered.”

Retreating from the village of Lapashkino, Mtsensk district, Orel region, the Germans completely robbed all the collective farmers, and then burned all the houses and buildings. Old men, women and children were left in the cold under the open sky.

At the Irkutsk plant named after Kuibyshev, engineer comrade. Lapin reconstructed the furnaces of the forge. For each ton of products, 200 kilograms of coal are now consumed instead of the previous 713 kilograms, and 20 kilograms have been saved on each ton of fuel oil. Comrade's offers Lapin will save 200,000 rubles a year.

Levitan, who has a voice of extraordinary power, read the reports of the Soviet Information Bureau during the Great Patriotic War, announced the capture of Berlin on May 4, 1945 and the Victory. And in April 1961, Yuri Borisovich informed the world about the first space flight of Yuri Gagarin.

Yurbor - that was the name of his colleagues from the Radio Committee. The Soviet Information Bureau was created on the third day of the war - June 24, 1941. Every day, people froze at the loudspeaker at the words uttered by Yuri Levitan: “From the Soviet information bureau ...” General Chernyakhovsky once said: “Yuri Levitan could replace an entire division ...” Levitan often received letters from the front. The soldiers wrote: “We go forward. Take care of your voice. You will get more work."

Hitler declared him his personal enemy number one and promised to "hang him as soon as the Wehrmacht enters Moscow." For the head of the first announcer Soviet Union a reward of 250,000 marks was promised.

In the summer of 1941, a bomb fell into the courtyard of the Radio Committee, and the German radio hastened to report: “The Bolshevik radio center has been destroyed! Levitan is killed! But the rumors about the death of the announcer were clearly exaggerated: the bomb hit manhole and didn't explode. As Levitan himself recalled, less than a quarter of an hour had passed, when his voice sounded on the air again.

“My friends from the editorial office of the Yunost magazine asked me: was it known to me in those years that the Nazis put a cash reward on my head? Levitan recalled. - Well, what should I answer? Yes, military comrades who came to Moscow from the front showed me leaflets of this kind. The point here is not that just my head was regarded highly. As far as I am aware of the events, someone in the Goebbels propaganda ministry wanted the Moscow radio announcer to inform the whole world from Berlin about the fall of Moscow and the surrender of Russia, which the Nazis expected from day to day. Jesuit trick! .. "

Mark Bernes (left) and Yuri Levitan on the set of the film "Two Soldiers"

In his memoirs, published in Yunost in 1966, Yuri Levitan admitted: “So, I have no hopes of ever writing memoirs. And I've come to terms with that idea. But one day, many years after the war, I spoke in Leningrad. Somehow it happened by itself that I read to the public a long-standing report of the Soviet Information Bureau on the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad. He reproduced not only the text, but also the nuances of the intonation with which he read the same summary then. And I saw that many in the hall were crying, and I myself suddenly got goosebumps. We all seem to have plunged into the atmosphere of those difficult years, as if a bygone day had returned. I read the reports of the Soviet Information Bureau from memory and, it seems to me, created in the listeners that mood that once with the sensitivity of a barometer reflected the state of affairs on the war fronts, more and more various details surfaced in my memory. It turned out that the situation was not so disastrous, that I remember much more than I thought. Obviously, there are events of such strength and significance that years cannot erase them from the weakest memory ... "

Levitan was born in Vladimir and lived in Moscow for many years. But for the besieged Petersburgers, for 900 terrible days, he became a truly kindred person, helping to survive.

“I remember a lot, but very fragmentarily, like individual episodic paintings snatched out of the darkness by a searchlight - this is from the memories of the blockade survivor Zinaida Stepanova. - There was a quiet despair, but the radio saved from it. They clung to the black plate of the loudspeaker, listened to Levitan's voice, and if the Information Bureau report was good, they rejoiced ... Olga Bergholz's poems were perceived not as poetry, but as a continuation of the front-line report. I remember, of course, the Leningrad metronome, the air raid siren. They hid from the bombings in the basement of the house, turned into a bomb shelter. Luxurious St. Petersburg parquet was burned in ovens, furniture and books were burned. They carried water from the Griboedov canal on sleds. They bought cards in a bakery, which, after the name of the former owner, was called "At Krin" and was decorated with figurines of angels ... "

And here is another testimony of Alexander Leonov, a blockade survivor: “Levitan seemed like a kindred person living nearby. It seemed that the words he uttered help to survive in those inhuman conditions, to believe that this hell will end, and he will definitely announce this ... "

Yuri Levitan reads out the "Act of Unconditional Surrender of the German Armed Forces".

He was a people's artist, but few knew his face. He recalled that because of this, he was almost too late to report on the Victory over Nazi Germany. “The radio studio from which such broadcasts were broadcast was located not far from the Kremlin, behind the GUM building. To get there, one had to cross Red Square. But before us is a sea of people. With the help of the police and the soldiers, they took five meters with a fight, and then nothing. “Comrades,” I shout, “let me through, we are on business!” And they answer us: “What's the matter! Now on the radio Levitan will transmit the order for victory, there will be a salute. Stand like everyone else, listen and look!” Wow advice ... And then it dawned on us: there is also a radio station in the Kremlin, you need to read from there! We run back, explain the situation to the commandant, and he gives the command to the guards not to stop the two people running along the Kremlin corridors. Here is the radio station. We tear off the wax seals from the package, reveal the text. The clock is 21 hours 55 minutes. Moscow is speaking. Nazi Germany crushed…”

And after his death, the great announcer remained in the shadows. After the war, people heard him less and less, since the beginning of the 70s, Levitan almost did not go on the air, because it seemed to the authorities that his voice was associated with listeners who should be tuned exclusively to the positive, with emergency situations. He began to voice the newsreel. He died in August 1983, when, despite the pain in his heart, he went to meet veterans. Before leaving, he said: “I can't let people down. Someone is waiting for me".

That August turned out to be unusually hot - the thermometer showed more than 40 degrees. On August 4, on the field near Prokhorovka, where the famous Battle of Kursk, Yuri Borisovich became ill. The doctors of the rural hospital, to which Levitan was taken, could no longer do anything. On the night of August 4, 1983, the country lost its main voice. In Moscow, tens of thousands of people came to say goodbye to Levitan ...

In 2008, a documentary film about life in the rear of Sverdlovsk during the war took place in Yekaterinburg. One of the main characters of the picture is the famous radio announcer Yuri Levitan. There are almost no documents left about his work in the Urals, and even more so witnesses. Levitan's stay in Sverdlovsk was strictly classified. He was transferred there in September 1941. The radio committee was located in a two-story mansion at the intersection of Radishchev and 8th March streets (a memorial plaque is now installed on this house - see the picture below). Now there is a regional branch of the party "Yabloko", "Pelmennaya" and an employment office for persons without a fixed place of residence. The basement where Levitan worked still exists.

Ural keeps the memory of Levitan; streets and ships are named after the announcer...

Levitan worked in Sverdlovsk until March 1943. This secret was revealed only twenty years after the victory. And, according to the playwright Alexander Arkhipov, who wrote the script for a film about the rear of Sverdlovsk, today it is almost impossible to find documents about that time: “There is nothing left. There is no newsreel... Or rather, it was at one time, a newsreel, for example, about the life of Sverdlovsk in 1942-43, but it is not in the archives, it has not been preserved. During the war, no one wrote down reports. Now it is no longer a secret that Levitan read all the reports that sound after the war.

For more than half a century of service in the All-Union Radio Committee, more than once or twice (but much less often than other colleagues), Yuri Borisovich happened to make mistakes. One of these "punctures" is associated with the name of the "grey eminence of the Kremlin", secretary of the Central Committee Mikhail Suslov. Having received an urgent message about the awarding of Suslov in connection with the next anniversary, Levitan sat down at the microphone and read: “Today in the Kremlin, Comrade Suslov was presented with the organ of Friendship of Peoples in a solemn atmosphere.” Long after that, the radio employees found out among themselves what kind of organ the friendship of peoples could have ...

A long-term friend of Levitan, the famous scientist and bard Alexander Moiseevich Gorodnitsky recalled: “I copied Levitan’s voice well and portrayed how he read us the reports of the Soviet Information Bureau. Of course, I exaggerated, but I was close to the truth and thus amused Yura: “Attention, attention! Today, in all the expanses of our vast Motherland, Thursday is again! Hear an important message! The Soviet government, meeting the wishes of the working people, decided to lower the prices of basic necessities. Gynecological chair - the price is reduced by eighteen percent, acrid smoke - by twenty-six percent, broken glass - by thirty-five percent, grated globes - by fifteen, watches without mechanisms - by nineteen percent. In this way, every Soviet family will save three hundred and four rubles and eighty-seven kopecks over the course of ten years ... (And quickly.) Prices for butter, meat, sugar and milk have been increased ... In addition, the Soviet government solemnly swears that every family in this five-year period will to have your own buoy on the Black Sea!

Nikita Bogoslovsky, a famous composer and a great joker, once persuaded Yuri Borisovich to draw some completely children's house with a pipe, framed this sheet and hung it on the wall ... And then he challenged the guests, claiming that this was “the real Levitan”! Without specifying, of course, Isaac or Yuri ...

Activist Vyacheslav Volkov proposes to erect a monument in St. Petersburg to the legendary announcer Yuri Levitan, whose voice helped to survive in besieged Leningrad. The authorities do not support the idea, referring to the letter of the law.

Moscow and Berlin spoke out in defense of this idea. The project was supported, among other things, by Nikolai Belyaev, a participant in the assault on the Reichstag, a Komsomol organizer of the regiment of the 150th Infantry Division, who handed over the assault flag to Yegorov and Kantaria (he is over ninety, he lives in St. Petersburg); Ivan Klochkov - a legendary man, also a participant in the storming of Berlin and hoisting the banner of Victory over the Reichstag; People's Artist of Russia Vasily Lanovoy; Vladimir Khodyrev, who once headed the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council; People's Artist of Russia, professor, author of monuments in many cities of the country Anatoly Dema.

But the authorities of St. Petersburg did not like the idea. At one of the meetings held in October 2009, the organizing committee for the preparations for the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Victory decided: “the installation of a monument to Yu. 26 years. And, as the city authorities explained to Volkov, according to the law of St. Petersburg, this is not enough time for the installation of a monument to be discussed.

And finally, I will return to Alexander Gorodnitsky again. On October 14, 1987, he dedicated the simple and precise lines of the new song to his friend Yuri Levitan:

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You can prepare a very creative video greeting on the victory holiday with the help ofwww.bagration.su . Post your photo on this site and see what happens next.

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