Soviet fighter pilot interview vid

[dduff442]

The account of his dispute with the commissar is interesting. These were always portrayed as sinister figures in the western world. From what I've read of Soviet accounts, admittedly censored ones, they seemed to mix in the role of welfare officer, morale officer along with their political job. Even taking the western interpretation at face value, it was at least shrewd to give the role some positive value in the troops' minds.

Arkhipenko seemed to suffer some discrimination but no other punishment for his clash with the communist party. Of course he was an invaluable asset and it might have been different in peace time, but I'd be interested in the views of people who know about how commissar's were regarded by their fellow officers and the ordinary ranks in their units.

Anyone know much about this?

dduff

[FPSOlkor]

Quite differently, really. Two things were required for comissar to be respected
1: Being among his men, knowing their needs, trying to help them
2: Being one of them, that is, if he is in tank or fighter unit, he has to be a tanc crew member or a pilot.

[dduff442]

Thanks for the info -- that's pretty much the impression I got using Google to translate Russian documents and books.

The German general's version about 'fanatical commissars' being basically murderous thugs seemed to take root in the west. They got their story out first and it's ironic that many of the stereotypes of the war in the east come from the likes of Guderian or Manstein.

There are non-german books still in print that show the USSR as having 4:1 strategic superiority over Germany and 16:1 at the point of attack, numbers that were wildly wrong. Until recently, the narrative of the war in the east was nearly entirely of German origin. Postwar German historians were fine, but the Generals' memoirs were unreliable.

dduff