Page 467 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

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In these testimonies, also the issue of rape is touched upon. For most of the soldiers
it was a fact that happened and, after four years of hell, they did not care much about it:
th
So for example Vladimir Stezhenskij, a translator: He writes in his diary on the 13 of
March, 1945: “The more you get in contact with the Germans, the more you experience
a feeling of hate and disgust. It is an offish, selfish people. There are sick people, injured
ones, but no one helps them. When someone helps, it is our medical personal. […].
Every local girl, even the youngest ones, are somehow puffed up […]. There’s nothing
of a nice face. Indeed, some of the girls have to deal with 6-8 men a night. Of course,
you have to get in rage because of that, but you can’t do anything against it. A war is a
war. And Ivan is Ivan [The Russians, kb …] The Fritzes [the Germans, kb] behaved even
worse on our territory. I miss my comrades.“ 27
His explaining (and relativising) of rape as something that happens almost naturally
during wartime sounds familiar also to Western ears. As so is that he does not talk about
his own deeds or acts of violence committed by him. He applies a narrative through which
he acknowledges the atrocities, but differentiates between “himself” and “them”, the per-
petrators. And he blames to some extent the victims, the „puffed up German girls”.
Nevertheless, it is Russian memories, where all these elements can be found much
more clearer as they seem to have experienced some kind of development .
One example is Ivan Yakushin, a soldier form the cavalry. He writes in his memories,
which were published in English, on the same occasion, his (unit’s) trespassing of Ger-
man borders: “Thus, when we entered Eastern Prussia, atrocities were committed by
Red Army troops - cases of revenge. But this did not last long, as official orders came
to treat the local population well. […] I did not hear anything about rapes committed
by men from our regiment, but I can imagine that such sad incidents took place. It was
mostly supply troops that did such things: they had plenty of time, whereas we were
always on the move. We also had to take care of horses and equipment, which consumed
much of our time and energy. However; I can confirm that many officers dated German
women. These ladies seemed happy to live with Soviet officers (all German men were at
the Front) and I suppose they reasoned that: ‘If I live with a Russian officer, the ordinary
soldiers would not dare to do anything bad to my house.’” 28
His argumentation could be summarized as following: Sexual violence happened,
but I did not know about it, especially in regard to my men. And, actually, it were the
women who came to us. When there was sexual intercourse, they wanted it. He himself
does not seem to be personally involved or can see any guilt on his side.

Personally involved is the last author worthwhile to be quoted here: Leonid Rab-
ichev, a young commander then. He makes a clear cut distinction between the ugly
sexual violence others committed without him having a share, and his own deeds which
were even inspired by romance:
So, when publishing his memories in a Russian periodical he writes about Red Army

27 Valdimir Steenskiy, Soldatskiy dnevnik. Voennye stranitsy [A soldier‘s diary. Pages of war], Moscow 2005,
205.
28 Yakushin, Ivan, On the roads of war. A Soviet cavalryman on the eastern front. Barnsley, 2005, 147.