Mail Correspondence with Soldiers at War (“Feldpostbriefe”): Letter from Russian soldier Volodya Jackevich about the fighting on the Eastern Front in July 1942 and the impending “terrible revenge on the enemy” (Published on 31/10/2025)
War letters from Russian soldiers seem to have been published relatively rarely, at least in Western Europe; only a few have been found so far. One exception is the 2018 book “Junge deutsche und sowjetische Soldaten in Stalingrad – Briefe, Dokumente und Darstellungen” (“Young German and Soviet Soldiers in Stalingrad – Letters, Documents, and Accounts”) by Jens Ebert, which also contains translations of several Russian war letters written during the battles for Stalingrad between the summer of 1942 and early 1943. The thoughts and feelings of Russian soldiers expressed in these letters, their assessment of the fighting, and their very early and ultimately accurate assessment of the outcome of the war are as revealing as they are astonishing, especially in light of the actions of the German leadership and the slogans of perseverance it spread until shortly before the end of the war.
On 03/0/1942, former Red Army soldier Volodya Jackevich wrote the following letter (source: Ebert, Junge deutsche und sowjetische Soldaten in Stalingrad – Briefe, Dokumente und Darstellungen (2018), p. 184 ff. [translation from German language]):
“Dear Tolya, I wish you good health!
I received your letter a few days ago, but only today have I found a little time to write back to you.
Life is continuing as usual for the time being, without any changes. There is nothing new, except that the content of my work and activities is different.
In this respect, every day brings something special and new. No one knows when the situation will change.
When we left the West, we thought it wouldn’t be for long. But now more than two months have passed since we’ve been hanging around in the hinterland. We are working on a particularly important matter, namely the fulfillment of Comrade Stalin’s Order No. 130 for May 1, but many of our people are tired of the conditions in the rear and all want to get to the front as soon as possible to fulfill the main task of the order, namely to crush the Hitler pigs before the end of 1942. Do you remember the situation in July 1941, Tolya, and when you look at the situation today – what a huge difference! What Comrade Stalin said in his speech on July 3, 1941, about the temporary successes of the Germans has proven to be completely true. The defeat of the Germans is inevitable, even if they still manage to gain superiority in certain areas and achieve relatively minor successes, such as in the Sevastopol sector. It is now obvious to everyone that Hitler’s Germany has grown weaker in the course of the war and that the forces of the Soviet people are growing stronger and stronger, fighting heroically not only on the battlefields but also mastering all the difficulties and hardships in the rear and on the labor front with no less heroism.
I believe without reservation that our strength, our courage, our will to win, and our hatred of the enemy will be enough not only to win the war, but also to reduce Hitler’s vermin to rubble and ashes and force all their women and other rabble to feel on their own wretched skin everything that our people, our relatives, and our loved ones have had to endure.
This will be a terrible revenge on the enemy for their barbaric attempt to destroy our homeland and our people.
Dear Tolya, I just can’t forget what I lost within a year. Recently, I found out from the central information office that an acquaintance from Ufa lives in Tambov. I sent a request to the address office, but haven’t received a reply yet. Maybe she knows something about Lena and will tell me. The searches in the various administrative areas were unsuccessful – they are nowhere to be found. It’s terrible to come to terms with the idea that they are all dead or suffering from unlikely hardships. That’s why I want to get to the front as soon as possible, to my homeland as soon as possible, and find out what happened and how. And there it will be easier and clearer to fathom the purpose of life.
Forgive me, my dear, for taking up your attention with such trifles.
There is nothing to report about the weather; it remains cold. No one is swimming in the Oka yet. But the harvest here is good. People are working heroically in the factories, cooperatives, and fields. The owners of the apartment where I live leave at 7 in the morning and come back at 11 in the evening, almost like us – 17 hours a day. Their living conditions are the same or almost the same as ours.
There is nothing particularly good to report about my living conditions. I get 0.7 loaves of bread, rarely soup with a drop of vegetable oil, sometimes groats, about 20 grams of sugar, and rarely 40-50 grams of machorka tobacco. In short, there is no reason to be envious. In a few days, I will send you a picture of myself on paper, and then you will see that I am still the same person you saw in Polotsk. On my days off, my landlady buys milk and potatoes to prepare dinner. But the money only lasts for 2-2.5 weeks, and the rest of the time we have to live on the state’s expense. But that’s no reason to feel offended. Perhaps we are facing great difficulties, and we have to be prepared for anything.
I haven’t received a letter from Kostja in a long time. The next one should arrive soon; they take exactly one month to arrive.
I receive letters from Polja quite often. I am very grateful to her, because the content and warmth of her letters are simply heartwarming and encouraging, helping me to overcome all kinds of difficulties at work and in life.
I would like to conclude here for now, dear Tolya. Please write as soon as you have the opportunity, and don’t wait for my letters. Every message from you is a joy for me here among strangers and people I hardly know.
I wish you every success in your work, good health, and happiness and prosperity in your personal life.
Stay healthy!
I await your reply and send you my warmest regards.
Yours, Volodya“
As is well known, the announced “terrible revenge on the enemy” was not long in coming. For many German soldiers, preventing this was a decisive reason for continuing the fight even in the most hopeless situations. “We must win the war, or God help us!” was a sentiment that was omnipresent in Germany at the time, and which was ultimately replaced in many cases by the horrified cry, “The Russians are coming!”, which remained a painful memory for the survivors for the rest of their lives.
May this never be forgotten.
(Head picture: Grave of the two-year old Russian boy Feodor Strelzow
at the German military cemetery Brandau/Odenwald, August 2025)
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