Unbroken. Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev

Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was born on October 14, 1880 in the city of Omsk. He was sixth and last child in the family of court adviser Mikhail Ilyich Karbyshev and his wife Alexandra Efimovna. Parents wanted to give all their sons (Vladimir, Mikhail, Sergey and Dmitry) a higher education, and first of all they wanted to see them as doctors. However, the cramped financial situation forced them to reorient themselves to the fact that the younger children in the government boarding school "went into officers." In addition, the Karbyshev family was considered "unreliable" and was under the supervision of the gendarmerie and the police. The reason for this was the activities of Dmitry's older brother Vladimir, who studied at the medical faculty of Kazan University and took part in student demonstrations and distribution of leaflets. In the summer of 1888, Vladimir was arrested and sent into exile in Ust-Kamenogorsk, where he lived for the rest of his life.
The arrest and exile of the eldest son, summons for interrogation to the gendarme department, police surveillance of the family affected the state of health of the sixty-year-old Mikhail Ilyich, who worked as an assistant accountant of the District quartermaster department. He died in 1892. The younger children, Sergei and Dmitry, who entered hometown in the Siberian Cadet Corps, had to endure many hardships during the years of study.

Subsequently, Karbyshev wrote: “Because of the arrest of my brother, I was not accepted into the corps for training at state expense, and as an exception, I studied at my own, despite the fact that my mother was a widow and had no means.” However, he studied diligently, becoming the best in his class when he graduated in 1898. And in the fall of the same year, Dmitry entered the Nikolaev Military Engineering School in St. Petersburg, and two years later he graduated from it "in the first category."

Mikhailovsky Castle - Nikolaev Military Engineering School

With the rank of second lieutenant, a twenty-year-old youth was sent to Far East.

At the headquarters of the Amur Military District, located in the city of Khabarovsk, in the fall of 1900, a young officer was seconded to the first East Siberian engineer battalion, based near Vladivostok. The first position of Dmitry Mikhailovich in military service was as the head of the cable department of the telegraph company.

The promotion was not long in coming - already in 1903 the diligent young guy was promoted to lieutenant. In the same period, Karbyshev's cable department for successful execution complex assignments for conducting telegraph lines and providing communications was recognized as the best unit of the military unit.

The first East Siberian engineer battalion deployed to Mukden was at the forefront from the very beginning of the Russo-Japanese War.

Very little is known about the life of Dmitry Mikhailovich at that time - his company installed communications, strengthened positions, conducted reconnaissance in force and built bridges. Karbyshev, together with his people, ensured uninterrupted communication between the headquarters of military formations and with the troops leading the battle. The losses of the engineering units were enormous - by the end of the war, their composition was actually halved.

attack near Mukden

For his excellent knowledge of the matter, courage and resourcefulness, humane attitude towards the "lower ranks", the lieutenant of the engineering troops became one of the heroes of the lost war, and his military path can be judged by the awards he received. Dmitry Mikhailovich successively received five orders - the most honorary "St. Vladimir of the fourth degree" (September 2, 1904), "St. Stanislav of the third degree" (November 4, 1904), "St. Anna of the third degree" (January 2, 1905), "St. Stanislav of the second degree" (February 20, 1905) and "Saint Anna of the fourth degree" (for distinction in battles from February to March 1905).

However, the military officer did not make a career. The soldiers of the garrison of the Vladivostok fortress, where Karbyshev returned as part of his battalion, opposed the old order - more than once it even came to armed clashes with the police. The unwillingness of Dmitry Mikhailovich to testify and, moreover, denunciations of the soldiers with whom he fought together, led to the dismissal of Karbyshev. In his autobiography, he wrote: “In 1906 I retired from military service. The reason was the unwillingness to serve in the army of the king. The reason was the accusations against me of agitation among the soldiers, for which I was brought to trial by the Society of Officers. As a civilian, Dmitry Mikhailovich settled in Vladivostok, getting a job as a private draftsman. However, by the will of fate, a year later, in 1907, he again found himself in the ranks of the military. The reason was the announcement of the formation of a special sapper battalion in the local garrison, created to serve the fortress city. The command appointed Karbyshev head of the company in the emerging battalion.

Dmitry Mikhailovich's six-month service was interrupted by his call to the headquarters of the Amur Military District, where all officers who expressed a desire to enter an academy were to undergo a preliminary knowledge test. The tests in the spring of 1908 were successful, and six months later Karbyshev went to take the entrance exams to the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy. His knowledge amazed many - during the twenty-five-day exams, he received the highest scores in almost all twenty-three (!) Subjects. For three years, Dmitry Mikhailovich studied with the most first-class specialists in our country and was one of the best on the course. Studying in military academies, by the way, has always been extremely difficult. According to the memoirs of classmates, Karbyshev was distinguished by diligence and perseverance, he was always strictly smart, he liked to visit the fencing hall and the shooting range. Upon graduation from the academy, Dmitry Mikhailovich with a certificate "for excellent success" was promoted to the rank of staff captain and approved in the rank of military engineer.
By that time it was 1911. Dmitry Mikhailovich, who now has an academic badge, was assigned to the first Sevastopol fortress mine company of engineering troops, starting work to strengthen the western borders of the Russian Empire. In October 1912, he, along with several fellow students at the academy, was transferred "to the disposal of the chief of engineers of the Warsaw military district." Under the command of the masters of military engineering, Major Generals Buynitsky and Ovchinnikov, Dmitry Mikhailovich took part in the construction of the forts of the Brest Fortress, carrying out engineering and reconnaissance work near Bialystok, as well as on the Dubno-Lutsk line.

construction of “Fort V” of the Brest Fortress

Brest Fortress

He worked there first as a junior foreman, and then as a senior foreman. Technical projects Karbyshev were sent to St. Petersburg and Warsaw as exemplary ones. In Brest, Dmitry Mikhailovich had a major personal misfortune - in 1913 his wife Alisa Karlovna tragically passed away, whom he met while serving in the Far East and lived together for six years.

In the summer of 1914 the First World War began. From the very beginning, Dmitry Mikhailovich asked the leadership to send him to the front line. Soon the report was satisfied, and already in the fall of this year, the engineer-captain was in the army on the South-Western Front. He fought in the Carpathians in the eighth army of General Alexei Brusilov and was an engineer of the 69th and 78th infantry divisions, and later the head of the engineering service of the twenty-second Finnish Rifle Corps. Many advances and retreats, positional battles, along with Russian soldiers, artillerymen and cavalrymen, went through the courageous commander of a sapper company, and then the battalion Karbyshev. Repeatedly he had to go into bayonet attacks, many of his fellow officers and subordinate sappers fell, who, as usual, were under enemy fire in the rearguard of the retreating and in the vanguard of the advancing troops.

engineer-captain D.M. Karbyshev

In March 1915, in the battle for the capture of the Przemysl fortress, he was wounded. The bullet passed right through the soft parts of the leg without touching the bone. After the cure, the courageous captain expressed a desire to return to the front. However, Dmitry Mikhailovich went to the front line not alone. Together with him, the nurse Lydia Vasilievna Opatskaya, who cared for Karbyshev in the hospital, left, becoming his wife and taking his last name. Subsequently, they had three children: Elena, Tatiana and Alexei.

In the life of a military engineer, new battles and new orders followed, received both for the skilful leadership of the troops subordinate to him, and for personally shown courage. Dmitry Mikhailovich was promoted to lieutenant colonel, in 1916 he, among others, participated in the famous Brusilov breakthrough, and in 1917 he participated in work to strengthen positions on the Romanian border. The October Revolution found Dmitry Mikhailovich on the Southwestern Front. After painful reflection, Karbyshev decided to go over to the side of the Bolsheviks and part with both the royal shoulder straps and all the regalia and ranks. At the end of December 1918, meetings of soldiers were held in many units of the Sixth and Eighth Armies. The engineering company of the Siberian division was no exception. Dmitry Mikhailovich was elected chairman of the meeting. After a heated debate, 215 sappers of the company adopted a resolution in which they announced the support of the Soviet government by all available means. The text of this resolution was published by the newspaper of the army committee called "Warrior-Citizen" in January 1918. And soon an order was issued by the commander of the Romanian Front, General Shcherbachev, who refused to obey Soviet power, to destroy the sixth and eighth "rebellious" armies.

Dmitry Grigorievich Shcherbachev

The punitive detachments moved to Mogilev-Podolsky, where the Military Revolutionary Committee was located together with the field headquarters of the Eighth Army. Thus was born a new front of the civil war. Karbyshev was instructed to build defensive fortifications around the city, as well as to bring bridges across the Dniester into a defensive state. Special Red Guard detachments were created against the advancing units of General Shcherbachev, and some time later Dmitry Mikhailovich was sent to one of these units as a detachment engineer.

After the conclusion of a peace treaty humiliating for our country, Soviet troops were withdrawn beyond the demarcation line, and Karbyshev and his wife arrived in Voronezh in April 1918. However, he stayed there for a few days, having received an order to go to the capital of Russia. In Moscow, Dmitry Mikhailovich was appointed to the Collegium for Engineering Defense of the new state, formed under the Main Military Engineering Directorate, which was headed by the most experienced engineer-general Konstantin Velichko. During the period of peaceful respite, Kardyshev left Moscow only twice. In May 1918, he left for Tula, and from there went to the border with German-occupied Ukraine in order to inspect engineering work in border curtains and detachments. And in the middle of summer, he visited the Smolensk defensive region for the same purpose. The next trip in August 1918 was already to the front. Karbyshev was heading to Kizlyar to take the place of the head of the engineering department of the North Caucasian Military District. However, he never reached his destination, "stuck" in Tsaritsyn. This city, from August 1918 until the end of the year, repelled the offensive of the White Cossacks three times. Based on the experience gained in the bloody battles near Tsaritsyn, Dmitry Mikhailovich formulated a position that became his motto for life: “It is not the walls that defend themselves, but the people. The walls only help."

defense of Tsaritsyn

In early November 1918, the situation on the Eastern Front changed dramatically, and Dmitry Mikhailovich was sent to strengthen the lines on the banks of the Volga. Reconnaissance over five hundred kilometers from Syzran to the town of Tetyush was carried out by Karbyshev in record time - in just eight days. By that time, the military engineer already knew the field fortification perfectly and had a rare gift to combine it with the operational art of the troops and tactics. His final project included a detailed explanatory note, the exact locations of the batteries and their required caliber, showed panoramic views of the most important fortifications from different positions, and a brief estimate for the work. Kamenev, commander of the Eastern Front, expressed gratitude to Dmitry Mikhailovich, calling the project exemplary.

Sergei Sergeevich Kamenev

The reproduced materials were sent to the troops, and later the Main Military Engineering Directorate issued them as a separate brochure.
At the end of 1918, Karbyshev arrived in Samara and immediately began to form the Office of the Military Field Construction of the Eastern Front. The task assigned to Dmitry Mikhailovich was extremely difficult - in the region of Samarskaya Luka, in the shortest possible time, create the Volga defensive line, stretching for more than two hundred kilometers. To do this, it was necessary to extract and move entire mountains of land, to build strong fortifications, barracks and dugouts for sapper units and civilian workers from scratch. Karbyshev did not have construction earthmoving mechanisms, and the local peasants did not want to work for money, demanding sugar, kerosene, nails, matches, horseshoes - in a word, everything that the village needed. Having none of this, Karbyshev turned quartermaster rations into a salary. However, this did not help either - there were a catastrophic shortage of workers, besides, the time for plowing was approaching, and an increasing number of villagers left for the spring field harvest. After painful deliberation, Dmitry Mikhailovich suggested that the command form separate working squads in the deep rear along with the Red Army units. Since time did not wait, Karbyshev, having received permission from the chief of engineers of the Eastern Front, undertook to independently organize them. And in December 1918, the initiative Mikhail Frunze was appointed commander of the Fourth Army of the Eastern Front.

Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze

Thanks to his help, construction began to boil in full along the entire front. In a short time, defensive knots were built in the most important directions in Samara, Simbirsk, Saratov, Zlatoust, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Troitsk and many other cities, which played a huge role in defeating the White Guards. Karbyshev followed the construction of fortifications and designed new ones, performed complex calculations, wrote instructions, instructions and memos. By the way, everything he wrote was distinguished by a special, unique style, accessible even to people ignorant of military engineering.
In March 1919, Kolchak's army launched an offensive, separate parts of the White Guards came close to Samara. A threatening situation also developed near the city of Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk). While Frunze was assembling a powerful strike group to defeat Kolchak, Karbyshev, who had been appointed the chief leader of the defensive work of the Eastern Front, received an urgent task to organize another line of defense in Samara on the northeastern side of the city. It passed five to seven kilometers from the center, now Karbysheva Street is located at this place. All work was completed on time, and the frontier became an insurmountable obstacle for the Whites. However, Dmitry Mikhailovich became famous after organizing the defense of the city of Uralsk - a key link in the plans of the command of the Eastern Front to prevent the unification of the troops of Kolchak and Denikin. Having carried out reconnaissance and the necessary calculations, the military engineer convincingly proved that if the enemy did not have heavy artillery, Uralsk could be held even when completely surrounded. Commanding a hundred sappers, with the help of local residents, he managed to build fortifications that made it possible for the three thousandth garrison in a complete blockade to hold out against a six-fold superior enemy for two months.

After the defeat of Kolchak, Karbyshev was appointed chief of engineers of the Fifth Army of the Eastern Front and was engaged in strengthening the Trans-Baikal bridgehead against the White Guards of Ataman Semenov and the Japanese invaders. In addition, Dmitry Mikhailovich devoted a lot of time to the restoration railway transport Siberia. Thanks to his initiative and organizational skills in short terms more than a hundred kilometers of tracks, dozens of bridges, telegraph and telephone communications in cities, as well as in the offensive zone of the Fifth Red Army, were established. Frunze wrote about him: "Karbyshev is a man of amazing capacity for work and extraordinary talents."

In 1920 the Southern Front became the key one. In August of this year, a military engineer arrived in the Crimea, and in the battles with the Wrangelites near Kakhovka, for the first time in Russian history, he successfully organized anti-tank defense - the Red Army not only repulsed the attack of armored monsters, but also captured seven tanks.

In the future, Dmitry Mikhailovich was responsible for engineering support for the assault on the fortifications of the Turkish Wall at Perekop and the Chongar Isthmus. And a year later, in 1921, Karbyshev was already in Ukraine and took part in the development of plans for operations to capture and destroy Makhno's gangs.

In the end, the civil war ended, and a period of peaceful and creative work began in the life of the young Republic of Soviets. The Karbyshev family settled in the capital on Smolensky Boulevard. In March 1923, Dmitry Mikhailovich was appointed to the position of chairman of the engineering committee (soon transformed into the military technical committee) of the Main Military Engineering Directorate. Since 1924, part-time Karbyshev began lecturing at once in a number of military academies. In 1926 he began teaching at the Military Academy. Frunze, and eight years later he took the post of head of the military engineering department of the Military Academy of the General Staff, educating a whole galaxy of domestic military engineers. It is curious that at the same time Dmitry Mikhailovich himself did not have an academic education. To eliminate this shortcoming, Karbyshev sat down at the desk in the fifty-sixth year and in 1938 graduated with brilliance from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. All this time he did not leave either scientific, or teaching, or practical activities. The Patriarch of the Russian Engineering Troops, Major General Ivan Belinsky, characterized Karbyshev as follows:

“Proportionately built, small in stature. Differs in sharp agility in movements. All like a stretched string. The face is slightly pockmarked, the eyes are shiny and black. He jokes very well, very witty.

Twenty years after the end of the civil war, Karbyshev devoted to the development of new means military engineering equipment, the study of various kinds of inventive and rationalization proposals, the creation of advanced subversive means. He participated in the development of the first prototypes of Soviet anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, proposed a number of technical innovations to strengthen defensive facilities, reduce the cost and facilitate the construction of fortifications. Dmitry Mikhailovich paid special attention to the problems of forcing water barriers and their engineering support. Karbyshev wrote more than a hundred scientific papers, articles and manuals. His works, devoted to the problems of tactics of engineering troops and engineering support for combat, became the main materials in the pre-war years in the training of Red Army commanders. In 1940, Karbyshev was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops, and on the eve of the war in February 1941 he received a doctorate in military sciences.

Before the start of World War II, Karbyshev was sent to the Western Special Military District. The war found him at the headquarters of the third army, located in Grodno. On the morning of June 22, 1941, Dmitry Mikhailovich woke up from frequent and strong explosions of air bombs. Having quickly dressed, he went to the headquarters, which had already announced a combat alert. All staff officers moved to a shelter arranged in the basement of the house. Enemy aircraft bombed the city in waves. After one of the explosions, the city power plant went out of order, and the lights went out. The telephone connection stopped working, with difficulty the headquarters of the third army communicated by radio with its units. Two days later, Karbyshev moved to the headquarters of the tenth army, which by June 27 was surrounded. From the memoirs of the surviving participants, it follows that Karbyshev constantly participated in battles, and also refused personal protection. In August 1941, when the situation worsened, he, among others, attempted a breakthrough. When crossing the Dnieper just north of Mogilev, Dmitry Mikhailovich was shell-shocked and captured in an unconscious state.

Thus began the bitter and terrible journey of the general through the fascist dungeons. Special studies about long years stay of a military engineer in German captivity, unfortunately no. All stories about him are based either on the recollections of eyewitnesses or on documents found by the Nazis, closely intertwined with the legends that arose around the name of the famous general. In addition, almost all high-ranking representatives of the Red Army command staff who were imprisoned with Karbyshev did not live to see the Victory.

One of the first camps where Dmitry Mikhailovich ended up was a former artillery range, located five kilometers from the Polish town of Ostrow Mazowiecka. A place of ten square kilometers became a haven for eighty thousand Soviet prisoners of war. Private, junior and middle commanders of the Red Army were kept in the corrals of the main camp, officers of the senior and senior command staff were placed in the other two. Most of the prisoners were in summer uniforms and lived in the open, hiding in holes dug in the sand. The extermination of prisoners of war began very soon - according to some sources, over six months (from June to December) more than forty thousand Soviet soldiers were hanged, shot, died of disease, hunger and cold.

The Nazis, who learned that a Russian general was in front of them, watched Karbyshev especially carefully. At the end of August, Dmitry Mikhailovich collapsed with dysentery. Comrades looked after him, taking out rice water and other "delicacies". Together, he was saved. And soon after recovery, the Germans for the first time offered Karbyshev to go to their service. However, Dmitry Mikhailovich flatly refused. In September 1941, the general, along with a large group of prisoners of war, was transferred to another camp for officers, also located on Polish territory in the city of Zamosc. At the end of the year, a terrible epidemic of typhus began in this place. Hundreds of prisoners died, and their corpses did not have time to be taken out. Dmitri Mikhailovich also caught typhus. And again, the Russian officers did not leave him to the mercy of fate. By common efforts, Karbyshev was well-groomed and began to recover.

The Nazis repeatedly tried to persuade the Soviet general to work for them, offering him money and tempting posts. Once Dmitry Mikhailovich answered them with a legendary phrase: “My convictions do not fall out along with my teeth ... I am a soldier and will remain faithful to my duty. And he forbids me to work for a country that is at war with my Motherland.” After six months of fruitless persuasion and torture, in April 1942 the Nazis sent the general to the Hammelburg officer concentration camp in Lower Bavaria. His appearance there did not go unnoticed. Dmitry Mikhailovich strove to address the prisoners as often as possible, to explain to people the situation on the fronts, to inspire confidence in victory and good spirits. He often repeated to his comrades: "We are prisoners, but not slaves, The main thing is not to fall on our knees." They believed him own example he made people remember that they were representatives of the mighty Russian people. A particularly sharp change in the mood of the prisoners of war occurred after the destruction of the Nazi group near Stalingrad. In the evenings, after work was completed, Soviet prisoners led by Karbyshev gathered near the wire fence of the generals' block and exchanged news about the situation on the fronts, about the victories of the Red Army. By the way, the authorship of the general is credited with the “Rules of conduct for Soviet commanders and fighters in German captivity”, which the prisoners retold to each other and which helped people survive in inhuman conditions. It is not known whether he compiled them alone or together with like-minded friends, however, from Hammelburg, the “Rules” with various additions spread to other concentration camps, in fact, turning into a people's document.

A special place during Karbyshev's Hammelburg captivity is occupied by his trip to Berlin in early February 1943. There, the Soviet general was offered a place in the scientific laboratory of engineering fortification. Despite meeting with Wilhelm von Keitel himself, Dmitry Mikhailovich categorically refused to cooperate, went on a hunger strike and demanded an immediate return to the concentration camp. After that, he spent some time in a solitary cell in the Gestapo building on Prinz Albert Strasse. The Germans, convinced of the futility of attempts to win over the general to their side, gave the following conclusion on his case: “... a prominent Soviet fortifier is fanatically devoted to the ideas of fidelity to military duty and patriotism ... It can be considered hopeless attempts to use him as an expert in military engineering ". At the end of the document there was a resolution: “Send to hard labor in Flossenbürg. Do not make allowances for age and rank.

Flossenbürg concentration camp

In the middle of 1943, under a reinforced SS escort, a handcuffed military engineer was sent to the extermination camp in Flossenbürg. This place was surrounded by six rows of electric barbed wire. Stone towers allowed the guards to shoot from machine guns and machine guns throughout the area adjacent to the camp. Two crematorium furnaces worked behind the wire, and in 1944 eleven gas chambers were put into operation here. After the war, a memorial plaque was installed on the chimney of the crematorium. The numbers of burned people are engraved on it - eighty thousand people of twenty different nationalities. It was here that the Nazis sent most of the Soviet captured generals, many of whom died here.

In this terrible place, Karbyshev was engaged in the hard work of dragging stones. By that time, in a dried up and hunched old man, dressed in tattered soldier's uniforms, and close people would not immediately recognize the always toned, slender lieutenant general. A month and a half later, the completely exhausted Dmitry Mikhailovich was transferred to the hospital due to illness and stayed there from mid-May until the end of summer. The Gestapo took Karbyshev from the hospital. What he was accused of is unknown, but he was shackled and thrown into the Nuremberg prison. But Dmitry Mikhailovich survived this, and again returned to Flossenbürg, and again worked in the quarries until the end of January 1944. And in February, the selection of prisoners for sending to other camps began. The move did not please anyone, it was clear to everyone that they were not being taken for treatment. Among others, Dmitry Mikhailovich also left this terrible place. Soon he recognized the final destination of his "journey" - the Majdanek camp, located near the Polish city of Lublin.

Majdanek furnaces for burning prisoners

It was another concentration camp of death, in which the number of people killed at that time had already exceeded one million. It was in this place that the Nazis first used gas chambers. There were seven of them in total, accommodating up to two thousand people. Karbyshev stayed in the camp until mid-April 1944. In connection with rumors about the approach of Red Army units and Polish partisans, Majdanek was hastily evacuated. Again, for the umpteenth time, the military engineer set off on the road. Majdanek, which became front-line, was replaced by rear Auschwitz, located in Silesia, sixty kilometers from Krakow on the right bank of the Sola. A different name for the camp and a different landscape, but the essence remained the same. If one and a half million people were killed in Majdanek, then more than four million were killed in Auschwitz. Karbyshev did not know these figures. He saw only hanged, tortured, shot, black smoke from crematoria and ditches clogged with human bodies. In Auschwitz, the prisoners ceased to be people with a surname and a given name - they only had a number. 1944 was the most difficult year for the prisoners of the camp.

From different countries Europe daily arrived transports with captives. Thousands of them were sent to gas chambers, crematoriums smoked day and night. Sometimes more than fifteen thousand people were killed here in a day. General Karbyshev worked in the camp cleaning team. From early morning until evening, he walked with a broom and cleaned the garbage pits. According to the stories of the survivors, the camp commandant and his entourage repeatedly mocked the Soviet general. Nevertheless, Karbyshev did not give up, and dozens of Soviet people supported him.

Meanwhile, Soviet troops were driving the Germans west. At the end of 1944, the Gestapo selected several Soviet officers in Auschwitz, including Dmitry Mikhailovich, and took them to Sachsenhausen, the famous “death factory”, located thirty kilometers from Berlin. It was here that the Nazis trained new cadres of executioners, who were then sent to other concentration camps and to the occupied territories. Sachsenhausen was a transit point, from where tens of thousands of prisoners were sent to Auschwitz, Flossenbürg, Majdanek ... In mid-February, Dmitry Mikhailovich passed through the gates of Mauthausen, spread out on the flat top of a rocky hill.

Mauthausen

On the second day after arriving at the camp (February 18, 1945), Dmitry Mikhailovich, together with a group of prisoners, was taken out into the yard. There they were ordered to undress and left to stand in the cold. It was about -10 degrees Celsius, a cold wind was blowing from the mountains, and many emaciated prisoners fell dead, unable to withstand this test. In the evening, the surviving prisoners were driven into the bathhouse and put under the shower, and after half an hour they were again driven out into the cold. The prisoners who did not want to die were watered with hoses. According to the memoirs, Karbyshev's last words were: “Comrades! Think of the Motherland, and courage will not leave you.”

monument to D.M. Karbyshev in Mauthausen

memorial at Mauthausen

For three and a half years, Dmitry Mikhailovich visited thirteen (!) death camps. For exceptional courage and stamina shown in captivity, on August 16, 1946, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero. Soviet Union. Eldest daughter Patriot General Elena followed the path of her father, becoming a famous military engineer.

monument to D.M. Karbyshev in Moscow

monument to D.M. Karbyshev in Omsk

Dmitry Karbyshev awards

Order of the Red Star.

Order of the Red Banner.
Order of Lenin, posthumously.

Main scientific works

Family of Dmitry Karbyshev

18.02.1945

Karbyshev Dmitry Mikhailovich

Hero of the Soviet Union

Russian military leader

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General Dmitry Karbyshev died heroically in the Mauthausen concentration camp

Soviet General Dmitry Karbyshev was held in many German concentration camps, before last day of his life, remaining faithful to military duty and the Motherland, on the night of February 18, 1945, in the Mauthausen concentration camp, among about five hundred other prisoners, after brutal tortures, he was doused with water in the cold. Karbyshev's body was burned in the ovens of Mauthausen.

Russian fortifier. The largest domestic scientist-engineer. Hero of the Soviet Union.
Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops. Doctor of military sciences. Professor at the Military Academy.

Dmitry Karbyshev was born on October 26, 1880 in the city of Omsk. The boy grew up in the family of a military official. At the age of twelve, he lost his father. The children were raised by their mother. He brilliantly graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps and was admitted to the St. Petersburg Nikolaev Military Engineering School.

After graduating from college in 1900, Dmitry was sent to serve in the 1st East Siberian sapper battalion. During the Russo-Japanese War, as part of a battalion, he strengthened positions, established communications, built bridges, and conducted reconnaissance in force. Participated in the battle of Mukden. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant.

After the war, Karbyshev served in Vladivostok. In 1911 he graduated with honors from the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy. Then he was sent to Brest-Litovsk to the post of commander of a mine company. There he took part in the construction of the forts of the Brest Fortress.

Dmitry Mikhailovich was a participant in the First World War from its very beginning. Since 1918 in the Red Army. From 1923, for three years he headed the Engineering Committee of the Main Military Engineering Directorate of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. At the same time, he taught at the Mikhail Frunze Military Academy.

In February 1934, Karbyshev became the head of the military engineering department of the Military Academy. General Staff. In 1938 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff and was approved as a professor. Then he became a lieutenant general of the engineering troops.

Karbyshev was the author of more than a hundred scientific papers on military engineering and military history. He also took part in the development of recommendations to the troops on engineering support for the breakthrough of the Mannerheim line in Finland.

The Great Patriotic War found Karbyshev at the headquarters of the 3rd Army in Grodno. In August 1941, when trying to get out of the encirclement, he was seriously shell-shocked in a battle in the Dnieper region. In an unconscious state, he was captured. Contained in German concentration camps. He was one of the active leaders of the camp resistance movement.

On the night of February 18, 1945, in the Mauthausen concentration camp, among about five hundred other prisoners, after brutal torture, they were doused with water in the cold, the air temperature was about -12 ° C. The last words of the general were addressed to those who shared a terrible fate with him: “Cheer up, comrades! Think of the Motherland, and courage will not leave you! The body of Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was burned in the ovens of Mauthausen.

Dmitry Karbyshev awards

State awards of the Russian Empire:

Order of St. Vladimir IV degree with swords and a bow.
Order of St. Stanislaus III degree with a bow.
Order of St. Stanislaus II degree with swords.
Order of St. Anne IV degree for wearing on the hilt of personal weapons.
Order of St. Anne III degree with swords and bow.
Order of Saint Anne II class with swords.

Soviet state awards and titles:

Order of the Red Star.
Jubilee medal "XX years of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army"
Order of the Red Banner.
Order of Lenin, posthumously.
Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously.

During the civil war, D. M. Karbyshev was twice awarded a gold watch with the inscription: "To the Red Fighter of the Socialist Revolution from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee."

He was elected an honorary Red Army soldier of the 4th exemplary sapper battalion, as a veteran of the civil war, who rendered special services to the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

Main Works and Projects of Dmitry Karbyshev

Main scientific works

Influence of struggle conditions on the forms and principles of fortification. - Army and Revolution, Kharkov, 1921, No. 1, 2-3, 4-5.
Exemplary reconnaissance of the banks of the river. Volga defensively. Historical example of the civil war. Ed. GVIU RKKA 1922
Military engineering in the World War. - Military Bulletin, 1924, No. 28, pp. 65-72.
Engineering preparation of the borders of the USSR. Book. 1, 1924.
Engineering intelligence. - War and Revolution, 1928, No. 1, p. 86
Destruction. - War and Revolution, 1929, No. 9, pp. 51-67, No. 10 pp. 16-37.
Defensive work in the protection of transport. 1930 150 pp. ed. Transprints of the NKPS. Recommended by the Center for the Protection of Railways.
Destruction and barriers. Joint with I. Kiselev and I. Maslov. - M., Mrs. military ed., 1931. 184 pp.
Defense of Port Arthur. Ed. Military Academy of the Red Army 1933
Destruction and barriers // journal "Technique of Youth", No. 8, 1936. pp. 10-12.
SD defense engineering support. Ed. Military Academy of the Red Army. M. V. Frunze, 1937.
Engineering support for an offensive operation. Ed. Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. Benefit. 1937.
Engineering support of the defensive operation. Ed. Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. Benefit. 1938.
Engineering support of combat operations of rifle formations. Ch. 1-2, 1939-1940.

Major fortification projects

1913 - participation in the development of the project for the construction of the second ring of defensive fortifications of the Brest Fortress and its implementation
1917 - participation in the development of a project to strengthen the positions of Russian troops on the border with Romania and its implementation
1919 - implementation of top leadership in planning and conducting all defensive work on the Eastern Front of the Red Army in the period civil war(against the troops of Admiral Kolchak), in particular, leadership: the construction of the Simbirsk, Samara, Saratov, Chelyabinsk, Zlatoust, Trinity, Kurgan fortified regions of the Red Army; ensuring the forcing of the Ufa and Belaya rivers by the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army during the Ufa operation and the beginning of the offensive of the troops of M.V. Frunze to Siberia; designing fortifications of Uralsk
1920 - management of design and engineering work to restore the railway bridge across the Irtysh in Omsk, then to strengthen the Trans-Baikal bridgehead of the Red Army troops advancing to the Far East
1920 - management of the design and construction of defensive fortifications on the Kakhovka bridgehead, then ensuring the assault on the Chongar fortifications and Perekop
1929 - main participation in the design of defensive structures along the western border of the Soviet Union
1940 - major involvement in securing a breakthrough Soviet troops the Mannerheim Line during the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940); management of fortification works to improve the citadel of the Brest Fortress

Interregional children's military-patriotic social movement "Young Karbyshevites".

Karbyshev is forever enrolled in the ranks of military unit 51171, located in the city of Grodno, in Belarus. Until now, his name is heard at every evening verification, and there is a bunk in the barracks of the engineer battalion. In 2016, a section of the defense line he designed was restored in Grodno. It is called "Karbyshev Line".

Between Mars and Jupiter, a small planet (1959) Karbyshev makes its way in a circumsolar orbit.

a mountain on Sakhalin named after Karbyshev.

Several educational institutions bear the name of D. M. Karbyshev: GBOU secondary school No. 354 in Moscow, secondary school No. 2 in Tver, secondary school No. 2, Pervomaisky village, Shemonakhinsky district, East Kazakhstan region, Republic of Kazakhstan; secondary school No. 92 in Chelyabinsk, secondary school No. 90 in Omsk, MBOU secondary school No. 18 in Volzhsky, Volgograd region, school No. 20 in Brest, Republic of Belarus, MBOU secondary school No. 16 in Chernogorsk, Republic of Khakassia, secondary school No. 14 Polevskoy, Sverdlovsk region, school No. 14, Rudny (Kazakhstan), Kiev secondary school No. 184 and No. 2, MBOU secondary school No. 7, Okha, Sakhalin region, gymnasium No. 1, Kyzyl Kiya, Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Batken region.

The name "Karbyshev" has a hockey team of the Central Research and Testing Institute of Engineering Troops of Russia.

The airport of Omsk is named after Dmitry Karbyshev.

In the secondary school No. 15 of the city of Grodno there is a memorial museum of D. Karbyshev. In the same city there is Karbysheva Street (formerly Podvalskaya, Polnaya, Polevaya, Feldstrasse, Napoleon, Kominternskaya, Hohensteinerstrasse, Comintern).

Family of Dmitry Karbyshev

First wife - Alisa Karlovna Troyanovich (1874-1913), of German origin, met in Vladivostok, where she was married to another officer. After 6 years of marriage with Dmitry Mikhailovich, she tragically died in 1913 (an accident, as evidenced by her funeral in a cemetery where suicides were not buried). She was buried in Belarus, Brest, at the Trishinsky cemetery.

The second wife is Lydia Vasilievna Opatskaya (married in 1916), a nurse who carried a staff captain wounded in the leg and unable to move under heavy enemy fire from the ruins of the fortifications of the Przemysl fortress and then followed him to a hospital in Belarus.
Three children were born in this marriage - Elena (1919-2006), Tatiana (1926-2003) and Alexei (1929-1988).

The eldest daughter Elena followed in her father's footsteps and became a military engineer, and was awarded orders and medals for her work. Tatyana worked as an economist, and Alexey received a PhD in Economics and headed a department at the Moscow Financial Institute.

Today, few people from the generation of 20-year-olds and younger will be able to tell anything intelligible about the legendary Soviet hero - Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev. His last name is well-known, mainly because of a large number city ​​streets named after him post-Soviet space, less often there are institutions named after him (for example, schools), but these are just the remaining fragments of that legend about a man whose fate was once known to every pioneer in any corner of the USSR ...

Dmitry Karbyshev was born on October 26, 1880 in Omsk in the family of a military official. At a young age, Dmitry was left without a father, however, he decided to follow in his footsteps and in 1898 he graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps, and two years later from the St. Petersburg Nikolaev Military Engineering School. Upon graduation, Karbyshev, with the rank of second lieutenant, was appointed to serve as a company commander in the 1st East Siberian Engineer Battalion, which was located in Manchuria.

Dmitry Karbyshev participated in the Russo-Japanese War: as part of his battalion, he strengthened positions, was engaged in building bridges and installing communications equipment. He showed himself to be a brave officer in the battles near Mukden, and it is not surprising that in the two years of this war Karbyshev received five orders and three medals.

In 1906, Dmitry Karbyshev was dismissed from the army to the reserve: according to documented sources, for campaigning among the soldiers at that turbulent revolutionary time. A year later, however, Karbyshev was again called up for service as a company commander of a sapper battalion: his knowledge and experience came in handy when rebuilding the fortifications in Vladivostok.

After graduating in 1911 with honors from the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy, Dmitry Mikhailovich was assigned to Brest-Litovsk, where he takes part in the construction of forts of the Brest-Litovsk fortress.

the first world war Karbyshev meets General A. A. Brusilov as part of the 8th Army, who fought in the Carpathians. In 1915, Karbyshev was one of the actively attacking the Przemysl fortress; in battles, he was wounded in the leg. For the heroism shown in these battles, Karbyshev receives the Order of St. Anna with swords and is promoted to lieutenant colonel.

Dmitry Karbyshev joined the Red Guard in December 1917, from the following year he was already part of the Red Army. During the Civil War, Karbyshev helped to strengthen military positions throughout the country - from Ukraine to Siberia. Since 1920, Dmitry Mikhailovich was the engineering chief of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front, a little later he was appointed assistant to the chief of engineers of the Southern Front.

After the Civil War, Karbyshev taught at the Frunze Military Academy, since 1934 he has been working as a teacher at the Military Academy of the General Staff. Among the students of the Academy Karbyshev was popular. Here is what Army General Shtemenko recalls about him: “... the favorite saying of sappers came from him: “One sapper, one ax, one day, one stump.” True, witty people changed it, in Karbyshev it sounded like this: "One battalion, one hour, one kilometer, one ton, one row."

In 1940, Karbyshev in the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops, and in 1941 he was awarded academic degree doctor of military sciences (he wrote more than a hundred scientific papers on military engineering, military). His theoretical aids in matters of engineering support during combat operations and the tactics of engineering troops were considered fundamental materials in the training of Red Army commanders before the Great Patriotic War.

Dmitry Karbyshev participated in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, developed recommendations for engineering support for the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line.

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War found Karbyshev at the headquarters of the 3rd Army in the city of Grodno. Dmitry Mikhailovich is offered to provide transport and bodyguards for returning to Moscow, however, he refuses, preferring to retreat along with units of the Red Army. Once surrounded and trying to get out of it, Karbyshev was severely shell-shocked in a fierce battle (near the Dnieper, in the Mogilev region), and unconsciously captured by the Germans.

From this moment begins the three-year history of Karbyshev's captivity, his wanderings through the Nazi camps.

In Nazi Germany, Karbyshev was well known: already in 1940, the IV Directorate of the RSHA of the Imperial Security Directorate opened a special dossier on him. The dossier had a special mark and was classified as "IV D 3-a", which meant - in addition to monitoring activities - to apply special treatment in case of capture.

He began his camp "path" in the Polish city of Ostrov-Mazowiecki, where he was sent to a distribution camp. Soon Karbyshev was sent to the camp of the Polish town of Zamostye, Dmitry Mikhailovich was settled in barrack No. 11 (later nicknamed the general's). The calculation of the Germans that after the hardships of camp life, Karbyshev would agree to cooperate with them, did not materialize, and in the spring of 1942 Karbyshev was transferred to an officer concentration camp in the city of Hammelburg (Bavaria). This camp, consisting purely of a contingent of Soviet captured officers and generals, was special - the task of its leadership was to persuade the prisoners to cooperate with Nazi Germany by any means. That is why in its atmosphere certain norms of legality and humane treatment were observed. However, these methods did not work on Dmitry Karbyshev, it was here that his motto was born: “There is no greater victory than victory over yourself! The main thing is not to fall on your knees before the enemy.”

Since 1943, the former officer of the tsarist Russian army, Pelit, has been conducting “preventive work” with Karbyshev (it is noteworthy that this Pelit once served with Dmitry Mikhailovich in Brest). Colonel Pelit was warned that the Russian military engineer was of particular interest to Germany, and therefore every effort should be made to bring him to the side of the Nazis.

The subtle psychologist Pelit got down to business with a reason: playing the role of an experienced warrior, far from politics, he described to Karbyshev all the advantages of switching to the German side (fantastic in nature). Dmitry Mikhailovich, however, immediately saw through Pelit's cunning and stood his ground: I do not betray my homeland.
The Gestapo command decides to use a slightly different tactic. Dmitry Karbyshev is taken to Berlin, where they organize a meeting with Heinz Raubenheimer, a famous German professor and expert in fortification engineering. In exchange for cooperation, he offers Karbyshev conditions for working and living in Germany, which would make him practically a free person. Dmitry Mikhailovich's answer was exhaustive: “My convictions do not fall out along with my teeth from a lack of vitamins in the camp diet. I am a soldier and I remain true to my duty. And he forbids me to work for the country that is at war with my Motherland.”

After such a firm refusal, tactics in relation to the Soviet prisoner-of-war general change again - Karbyshev is sent to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, a camp famous for its hard labor and truly inhuman conditions in relation to prisoners. Dmitry Karbyshev's six-month stay in the hell of Flossenbürg ended with his transfer to the Nuremberg Gestapo prison. After which the camps whirled like a gloomy carousel, where Karbyshev was assigned. Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen are truly nightmarish death camps that Karbyshev had to go through and in which, despite the inhuman conditions of existence, he remained a strong-willed and unbending person until his last days.

Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev died in the Austrian concentration camp Mauthausen: he froze, being doused with water in the cold ... He died heroically and martyrically, without betraying his Soviet Motherland.

The details of his death became known from the words of Canadian Army Major Seddon De St. Clair, who also passed Mauthausen. This was one of the first reliable information about the life of Karbyshev in captivity - after all, he was then considered missing in the USSR at the very beginning of the war.
In 1946, Dmitry Karbyshev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And on February 28, 1948, a monument and a memorial plaque were unveiled at the site of the former Mauthausen concentration camp, where Lieutenant General Karbyshev was savagely tortured.

General Karbyshev became the personification of the stamina and courage of the Russian people. A prominent scientist, military specialist, he went through the real hell of the German camps, but did not give up, preferring death from the cold under the streams of icy water to betrayal.

Hereditary military

Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was born in Omsk in 1880. His father served as a clerk in the district commissariat, his grandfather was also a military man. Dima, who at one time wanted to become an artist, the very origin dictated the future specialty. He was supposed to be in the military. For this, he had all the makings - good memory, discipline, strong will.

The elder brother of Dmitry Karbyshev, Vladimir, studied at Kazan University, where he closely communicated with the socialists and Vladimir Ulyanov. For participation in the student revolutionary movement, Vladimir Karbyshev was arrested, while Ulyanov was simply expelled. As a result, the elder brother of Dmitry Karbyshev died in prison. This life incident seriously affected the life of Karbyshev very seriously. Firstly, police control was immediately established for their family, Dima was not accepted to the cadet school to study at state expense, and he had to study at the family's expense.

Despite the difficulties, he successfully disaccustomed, passed the final tests and in 1898 entered the Nikolaev Military Engineering School. Secondly, perhaps in part because his brother died in the tsarist prison, Karbyshev did not hesitate to take the side of the Bolsheviks during the revolution.

Order bearer

Karbyshev was noted for his professionalism even in the Russo-Japanese War. There, as part of a battalion, he erected fortifications, conducted communications, went to reconnaissance in force, and participated in the battle of Mukden. For his heroism, Karbyshev was awarded five orders: St. Vladimir 4th degree with swords and a bow, St. Stanislav 3rd degree, St. Anna 3rd degree, St. Stanislav 2nd degree and St. Anna 4- 1st degree with the inscription "For Bravery", 3 medals.

In 1906, the order bearer Karbyshev was transferred to the reserve. According to documents - for anti-government agitation among soldiers in revolutionary times. His case was examined by the "court of honor". For a year, Dmitry Mikhailovich worked as a draftsman in Vladivostok, but then the army came in handy again - he was returned to help strengthen the Far Eastern fortifications. Experienced specialists, like Karbyshev, were always in short supply.

Dmitry Mikhailovich did not stop his studies and entered the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, after graduation he was assigned to Brest-Litovsk, where he participated in the construction of the Brest-Litovsk fortress.
Karbyshev distinguished himself in the First World War - immediately at the beginning of the war as part of Brusilov's army, he fought for Przemysl, where he was wounded and was awarded the Order of St. Anna with swords for his courage. Then he became a lieutenant colonel.

In Civil War, Karbyshev fights on the side of the Reds, builds military fortifications throughout the country, from Siberia to Ukraine. In 1920, Dmitry Mikhailovich became the engineering chief of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front, and then was appointed assistant chief of engineers of the Southern Front.

Scientist

After the Civil War, Karbyshev taught at the Frunze Military Academy and other military educational institutions. His scientific and teaching career is on the rise, in 1940 he becomes a lieutenant general, in 1941 - a doctor of military sciences. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, students loved and respected him. Karbyshev is recognized as one of the main specialists in fortification not only in the USSR, but also in the world. He has written more than 100 scientific papers on military history and military engineering. By teaching aids Karbyshev on the tactics of the engineering troops, the theory and practice of engineering support trained commanders in the pre-war and war time. During the Finnish war, Karbyshev developed recommendations for engineering support for the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line.

“I don’t sell my conscience and Motherland!”

General Karbyshev met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War at the headquarters of the 3rd Army in the city of Grodno. From there, Dmitry Mikhailovich moved to the headquarters of the 10th Army, which on June 27 was surrounded. Karbyshev was asked to evacuate in a special vehicle, but he refused, saying that he would leave the encirclement along with everyone else. On August 8, during an attempt to break through the encirclement, crossing the Dnieper, Karbyshev was shell-shocked and captured.
Karbyshev's "Way of the Cross" began in Poland, in the Ostrow Mazowiecki transit camp. Realizing who they managed to capture, the Germans immediately decided to recruit a prominent military specialist. The Karbyshev dossier had a special mark and was classified as IV D 3-a, which meant, in addition to monitoring activities, to apply special treatment in case of capture. The seriously ill, no longer young Soviet general was moved to Zamostye and settled in the general's barracks. Of course, they immediately tried to persuade him to cooperate, but Karbyshev’s position was unequivocal: “I don’t sell my conscience and Motherland!”

"Difficile"

Karbyshev's intractability, his steadfastness and courage amaze the imagination even today. What kind of tricks did the Germans not use to lure Karbyshev to their side. He was tempted by comfort, a former officer was sent to him for "reforging" tsarist army Pelit, with whom Karbyshev served together in Brest at one time, then Dmitry Mikhailovich was taken to Berlin to meet with the coryphaeus of fortification art Heinz Raubenheimer.

Karbyshev, however, was adamant. His answer was unequivocal: “My beliefs do not fall out along with my teeth from a lack of vitamins in the camp diet. I am a soldier and I remain true to my duty. And he forbids me to work for the country that is at war with my Motherland.”

Only then did the Germans realize that they would definitely not succeed in recruiting Karbyshev. The following phrase appeared in the documents of the Main Engineering Directorate of the Nazi Army: “... This largest Soviet fortifier, a regular officer of the old Russian army, a man who is over sixty years old, turned out to be fanatically devoted to the idea of ​​loyalty to military duty and patriotism ... Karbyshev can be considered hopeless in the sense of being used by us as a specialist in military engineering.”

"Good job"

Karbyshev, who at the time of captivity was over 60 years old, went through real hell. Here is just a list of the camps through which he passed: “Stalag-324” near the Polish city of Ostrow Mazowiecki, an officer camp in Zamosc, “Oflag XIII-D” in Hammelburg, a Gestapo prison in Berlin, a camp at the ROA transit point in Breslau, Nuremberg , extermination camp Flossenburg, death camp Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen.

Dmitry Mikhailovich did not lose courage until his death. According to the memoirs of one officer who was with Karbyshev in Auschwitz, he met Dmitry Mikhailovich in a team that was cleaning cesspools. Recognizing Karbyshev, the officer asked a stupid question: "How do you feel in Auschwitz?" Dmitry Mikhailovich bowed and replied: "Good, cheerfully, as in Majdanek."
When Karbyshev worked in a team for the preparation of gravestones, he mentioned that this work gives him real pleasure: “The more we have to make tombstones, the better, it means that our business is going on at the front.”

General Karbyshev died on February 18, 1945. He, along with other prisoners (about 500 people), was taken to the parade ground and began to pour cold water in the cold The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to General Karbyshev posthumously (February 28, 1948).

Soviet military leader, lieutenant general of engineering troops (1940), professor at the Military Academy of the General Staff (1938), doctor of military sciences (1941), Hero of the Soviet Union (1946, posthumously).

Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev was born on October 14 (26), 1880 in the city in the family of M. I. Karbyshev, a clerk in the district commissariat.

In 1891-1898, D. M. Karbyshev studied at the Siberian Cadet Corps, in 1900 he graduated from the Nikolaev Military Engineering School (first class). With the rank of second lieutenant, he was appointed company commander in the East Siberian sapper battalion, stationed in Manchuria.

D. M. Karbyshev took part in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, was the head of the cable department of the 4th telegraph company of the 1st East Siberian engineer battalion. Participated in the battle of Mukden (1905). During the war years, he was promoted to lieutenant and awarded five orders - St. Vladimir 4th degree with swords and a bow (1904), St. Stanislav 3rd degree with a bow (1904), St. Anna 3rd degree with swords and a bow ( 1905), St. Stanislaus 2nd class with swords (1905), St. Anne 4th class for wearing personal weapons on the hilt (1905).

In 1906, D. M. Karbyshev was transferred to the reserve. He was charged with agitation among the soldiers, the case was examined by an officer's "court of honor." A year later, due to the lack of experienced officers, he was again invited to serve. In 1907-1908, D. M. Karbyshev was a company commander of the Vladivostok fortress sapper battalion, took part in the restructuring of fortifications.

In 1908-1911, D. M. Karbyshev studied at the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy, from which he graduated with honors. In 1911 he was sent to serve in Brest-Litovsk (now in Belarus), where he took part in the construction of the forts of the Brest Fortress.

During the First World War, D. M. Karbyshev fought on the South-Western Front as part of the 8th army of the general. He was a divisional engineer of the 78th and 69th infantry divisions of the 22nd Finnish Rifle Corps. In early 1915, he took part in the assault on the Przemysl fortress, where he was wounded in the leg. For courage and courage, D. M. Karbyshev was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 2nd degree, and promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1916 he took part in the Brusilov breakthrough.

After the October Revolution of 1917, D. M. Karbyshev supported the Bolsheviks and recognized Soviet power. In December 1917, in the city of Mogilev-Podolsky (now in Ukraine), he joined the Red Guard, from 1918 he served in the Red Army. During the Civil War, he participated in the construction of the Simbirsk, Samara, Saratov, Chelyabinsk, Zlatoust, Troitsk, Kurgan fortified regions, and was engaged in the engineering support of the Kakhovka bridgehead. He held responsible positions at the headquarters of the North Caucasian Military District.

In 1920, D. M. Karbyshev was appointed chief of engineers of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front. Supervised the strengthening of the Trans-Baikal bridgehead. In the autumn of 1920 he became assistant chief of engineers of the Southern Front. He led the engineering support for the assault on Chongar and Perekop, for which he was awarded a personalized gold watch.

In 1921-1936, D. M. Karbyshev served in the engineering troops, was chairman of the Engineering Committee of the Main Military Engineering Directorate of the Red Army. From November 1926 he taught at the Military Academy. . In February 1934, he was appointed head of the military engineering department of the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1936, D. M. Karbyshev was an assistant to the head of the department of tactics of higher formations of the Military Academy of the General Staff. In 1938 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. In the same year, D. M. Karbyshev was approved in the academic rank of professor. In 1940 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general of the engineering troops. In the same year he joined the CPSU (b).

D. M. Karbyshev was the author of many scientific works: "Engineering preparation of the borders of the USSR" (book 1, 1924), "Destruction and obstacles" (1931, together with I. Kiselev and I. Maslov), "Engineering support for combat operations of rifle formations "(1939-1940), etc. He developed the foundations of the theory of engineering support for operations and the combat use of engineer troops.

D. M. Karbyshev took part in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. As part of the group of the Deputy Head of the Main Military Engineering Directorate for Defensive Construction, he developed recommendations for the troops on engineering support for the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line. In the prewar years, he was awarded the Orders of the Red Star (1938) and the Order of the Red Banner (1940).

In early June 1941, D. M. Karbyshev was sent to the Western Special Military District. The Great Patriotic War found him at the headquarters of the 3rd Army in Grodno (Belarus). Two days later, he moved to the headquarters of the 10th Army, which on June 27, 1941 was surrounded. In August 1941, when trying to get out of the encirclement, Lieutenant General D. M. Karbyshev was seriously shell-shocked in a battle near the village of Dobreika, Mogilev Region (Belarus) and was taken prisoner.

In 1941-1945, D. M. Karbyshev was kept in the German concentration camps Zamostye, Hammelburg, Flossenburg, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen. Adamantly remained faithful to the oath, resolutely suppressed the numerous attempts of the Nazis to persuade him to treason. Conducted anti-fascist agitation among prisoners of war.

On the night of February 18, 1945, D. M. Karbyshev died in the Mauthausen concentration camp (Austria) during the Nazi massacre of prisoners - revenge for the escape they organized two weeks ago. Among other prisoners (about 500 people), he was poured with water in the cold.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 16, 1946, D. M. Karbyshev "for exceptional stamina and courage shown in the fight against the German invaders in the Great Patriotic War" was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).