RIA Novosti).
This is a story told in his memoirs by Mikhail Domogatskikh, a Russian journalist and author who was among the troops liberating Vienna.
During the fighting for Vienna, five women were freed from a Nazi concentration camp, all of them the wives of prominent Austrian, Hungarian and Czechoslovak politicians. Major Grigory Pliyev, a well-known poet even before the war, led them to the front line of his own troops. However, he could not take them behind the lines at the time, and for them staying at the front line was dangerous. Pliyev managed to call General Dmitry Shepilov, who sent a car to take the former prisoners to the headquarters of Shepilov's 4th Guards Army, whence they proceeded to Moscow. It was more comfortable and safe for the women.
Recently, a translation of the memoirs of Francesca Gall, a pre-war movie star, was published in Russia, writes Mikhail Domogatskikh, in which Gall thanked the handsome major and the highly educated general, well versed both in cinema and music, who saved her in 1945.
Author Boris Gorbatov described Dmitry Shepilov as "a professor turned soldier and a soldier turned general".
It should be noted that the 4th Guards Army, which liberated Vienna, was unusual on two points.
Firstly, it set an unfortunate record in terms of the commanders who led it. After the army joined active service in spring 1942 following the battle of Stalingrad, it was led by Generals D.T. Kozlov, I.V. Galanin, G.I. Kulik, A.I. Zygin, A.I. Ryzhov, I.K. Smirnov, G.F. Zakharov and N.D. Zakhvatayev, with Col. Dmitry Shepilov heading the army's political department under all of the above commanders. Following the death of I.A. Gavrilov, a member of the army's Military Council (i.e., deputy army commander) in late 1944, Shepilov succeeded him and was promoted to major-general in March 1945. Because of poor health of Army Commander N.D. Zakhvatayev, Shepilov in spring 1945 in fact commanded the army during the liberation of Vienna.
Secondly, even in 1945, the 4th Guards Army retained some of its unusual traits inherited from 1941 when it joined action as the 21st Infantry Division: it was known as the "professorial" army, and also had many musicians, poets and writers in its ranks.
In summer 1941, Professor Shepilov was a researcher with the Institute of Economics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow. When the war broke out, he volunteered for active duty as a private. Those Moscow intellectuals willing to fight as part of the Territorial Army got together on July 6, 1941, in the yard of the Institute of Economics at 14, Volkhonka Street. As early as July 8, the 21st Infantry Division, manned by civilian volunteers, left Moscow for the front. Basic training took about two months, and the division first saw action on October 3. Fighting was bitter, and the division was encircled. After that, Shepilov was appointed deputy head of the political department.
The general's nephew, Yuri Shepilov recollects: "It was early October 1941. We lived on Zvenigorodskoye Highway, almost on the outskirts of Moscow. Once late at night, someone knocked on our door. It was Uncle Dmitry.... I recognized him at once, although he looked unusual - stubble and scratches on his face, sunk eyes, dirty overcoat... He could barely stand. He was wearing puttees. He told us bitterly that the unit had been hastily manned and poorly trained. Men were armed with rifles only and had no combat experience. When they ran out of ammunition, the Germans split them into groups, encircled them, and killed them. The rest broke out of the encirclement by the skin of their teeth."
But Shepilov made it to Austria, for the victory and the unexpected job of managing the liberated territory. He became famous in Austria for his ruthless suppression of any looting. Sergei Mikhalkov, a poet who wrote the words for the Soviet and currentRussian anthems, recalled how his colleague, El-Registan, and he, both military reporters at the time, found themselves in Vienna in April 1945 in a house where the "amazing general" (as Mikhalkov put it) and his future friend, Dmitry Shepilov, stayed. There was a large cupboard with numerous hunting guns in the house.
"El-Registan, who was up for hunting, and I were interested in the guns. My friend even said: 'General, you have quite a collection here!' Shepilov's rather sharp response was: 'I don't try to rake in any loot at war!'"
On the outskirts of Vienna, with Shepilov as acting commander of the 4th Guards Army, it was he who ordered his troops to do their best to minimize destruction of the city by artillery shelling, specifically mentioning the Opera House. He was known for his ability to sing several operas without the scores. The Austrians called Shepilov the savior of Vienna. It is a pity that only Austrian historical records mention this, while Soviet ones remain silent.
Veterans of the 4th Guards Army recalled that, following the liberation of Vienna, Shepilov told his men that Austria was not a German province, but rather an independent state occupied by the Germans and liberated by the Red Army. He told them they were not to treat the Austrians as the victor treats the loser, but help them in every possible way and provide them with food whenever possible.
Together with the Allies, Shepilov began organizing concerts and having movies shown in Vienna. As a result, the film Volga-Volga quickly broke Austrian stereotypes with respect to the Russians. Dmitry Shepilov was behind the efforts to rebuild and open the Opera House for the public. He invited to Vienna the famous tenor Ivan Kozlovsky, who also sang for the garrison's personnel. The great ballerina Galina Ulanova also used to come to Vienna.
The general made great efforts to have a monument to the Soviet troops who liberated Vienna installed in the city. He suggestedthat poetry by Sergei Mikhalkov be inscribed on it.
In Austria, General Shepilov had to handle many issues concerning both command and control of the Soviet troops and international matters. In particular, it was very important to influence the election of a leader of the Austrian Republic and the policies the country would adopt on either joining coalitions or remaining neutral.
"I had numerous tasks and duties ranging from taking part in establishing Austria's authorities led by President Karl Renner, the leader of the right socialists, and Chancellor Leopold Figl, chairman of the People's Party, to issues of education, health protection and food supply," Shepilov mentions in his memoirs.
Shepilov did a lot to help Renner to become the first president of Austria, which later announced its neutrality. The two hit it off when they met for the first time. Shepilov said he had read some of the books by Renner, who was an economist. Renner was surprised to find out that the Russian general used to be a professor of economics. This was too much!
This is how Dmitry Shepilov gained his diplomatic experience, that came in handy later when he headed the Soviet Foreign Ministry in 1956-57.
Dmitry Shepilov was awarded honorary citizenship of Vienna. US Army General George Patton decorated Shepilov with the highest US award in Vienna in May 1945.
(The text is an abridged chapter of the book dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dmitry Shepilov (1905-1995). The book is to be published in 2005 by the Center of Political and Economic Studies of the Institute of Eeconomics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. After the war, Dmitry Shepilov co-authored the first Soviet political economy textbook, and was involved in writing Nikita Khrushchev's 20th Soviet Communist Party Congress report on Stalin's personality cult. He also held the office of secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and foreign minister, and was relieved of all his duties after he spoke against Nikita Khrushchev in June 1957 during a plenary session of the Communist Party Central Committee.)
