Russia at war 1941-1945

colours, were expected to appeal to German soldiers and officers.]

Chapter XIII STALIN'S LITTLE NATIONALIST ORGY AFTER

KURSK

With the great victory of Kursk in July 1943 and the subsequent rapid advance of the Red Army along a vast front towards the Dnieper and beyond, the conviction grew in the

country that the war had been as good as won, though final victory was still very far ahead, and would still cost another million lives or more.

Leningrad was still under German shellfire, but Moscow, with its frequent victory salvoes and fireworks, was now completely out of danger; symbolically, in August 1943, the

whole diplomatic corps was allowed to return to Moscow from Kuibyshev—Japs,

Bulgarians and all.

On August 22, a programme of urgent reconstruction measures was published. The

purpose of this programme was, as far as possible, to put the liberated areas on their feet again, so that they should not be a lasting burden to the rest of the country. It provided, among other things, for the supply of seeds for autumn sowing, for the return of the cattle and tractors that had been evacuated before the retreat, for the emergency reconstruction of railways, railway buildings and for the building of rudimentary dwellings for railwaymen.

From now on, to the end of the war, there was a curious clash of two conflicting

tendencies, both of them characteristic of the personality of Stalin. The Marshal

combined in a strange way an urge to return to a semblance of "Leninist purity" with a streak of the most jingoist Great-Russian nationalism. In his Memoirs Ilya Ehrenburg says that it was in 1943, after Stalingrad and especially after Kursk, that this Great-Russian jingoism manifested itself with particular vigour, and made a writer like Lydia Seifullina squirm. "I always considered myself a Russian; but since my father was a Tartar, I shall damn well call myself a Tartar from now on. I don't like this Russian ultra-nationalism," she said.

The Russian ultra-nationalism took on peculiar forms in 1943 and made some foreign

observers go so far as to talk about a "return to Tsarism". And not only foreign observers, but some startled Russians too. A typical 1943 film was Eisenstein 's Ivan the Terrible, specially made on Stalin's orders, and depicting the cruel but wise State-Builder of Muscovy as the obvious forerunner of Stalin. The most striking example of the new

measures was the decision to set up nine "Suvorov Schools" in the liberated areas—i.e.

Cadet schools closely modelled on the pre-Revolution Cadet Corps. The "cult of the uniform", which had begun at the time of Stalingrad, was now in full swing. More than that: the Suvorov Schools (nine of 500 pupils each) were clearly intended to create

something of an "officer caste".

There was certainly something "Tsarist" about these Suvorov Schools. In a statement to Red Star on August 25, 1943, Lieut.-Gen. Morozov, head of the Military Education Establishments, said:

The Suvorov Military Schools are established, as is indicated by the instructions of the Council of People's Commissars and of the Central Committee of the Party,

after the manner of the old Cadet Schools. This means that the pupils will receive here not only a complete secondary education but also an elementary knowledge of

military problems. Having completed his education in a Suvorov School, such a boy will become a worthy Soviet officer. The whole system of this education is based on the idea that the military consciousness should penetrate into the pupils' flesh and

blood at an early age. At the end of his studies, the young Soviet officer must be a model of patriotism, culture, and a high standard of military knowledge... The

curriculum will be more extensive than in an ordinary secondary school. Already at eight he will start learning a foreign language. On many routine details we are