Tankman ion degen. Ion degen. a life full of heroism and miracles. Poem "My Comrade"

Ion Degen. Let me take off your felt boots as a souvenir. We still have to advance...

Ion Degen. The war never ends...

I discovered the name Jonah Degena largely by accident, having never heard of him before. In Soviet times, it was not customary to publish his poems; they were very different from those that glorified not only the feat of the common people, but also the leadership and guiding role of people with party cards on their chests. And when the 20-year-old tank company commander Ion Degen tried to read his poems from the stage of the Central House of Writers in 1945, he was simply booed! And the lines that laid bare the essence of the war, written in December 1944, were drowned in a wave of rejection:

My comrade, in mortal agony
Don't call your friends in vain
Let me better warm my palms
Over your smoking blood.

Don't cry, don't moan, you're not little,
You're not wounded, you're just killed.
Let me take off your felt boots as a souvenir.
We still have to advance.

Ion (Jonah) Lazarevich Degen (June 4, 1925 Mogilev-Podolsky, Ukrainian SSR) - writer, doctor and medical scientist in the field of orthopedics and traumatology, ace tankman during the Great Patriotic War, currently lives in Israel. Doctor of Medical Sciences (1973).

At the end of May 1941, Ion graduated from the ninth grade of school, he had big plans for the future: he wanted to master his parents’ profession - medicine. But instead he ended up with his mother on a train that was taking them east. At one of the stations, Ion went to the platform with a pot, but did not return to the train. He rushed to the front, and let me remind you, he had just turned 16...

Ninth grade ended only yesterday.
Will I ever graduate from 10th?
Holidays are a happy time.
And suddenly - a trench, a carbine, grenades,

And above the river a house burned to the ground,
Your deskmate is forever lost.
I'm helplessly confused about everything
What cannot be measured by school standards.

Until my death I will remember:
There were reflections on the cracks of the chalk,
Like a brand new school notebook,
The sky was blue above the battlefield,

My trench under the blooming elderberry tree,
A flock of squeaky swifts flew by,
And the cloud sparkled white,
Just like a “no-pouring” ink without ink.

But a finger with a purple spot,
Followed by dictations and tests,
As I pressed the hook, I thought about
That I’m starting to count is no longer school.

Ion became a scout for one of the units of the Red Army, but was almost immediately wounded. He fell behind his own people, finding himself in territory occupied by the Nazis. He was subject to immediate execution if he was discovered by the Nazis. The Grigorukov family hid it, went out a little, but a little later the wound festered again. But he walked at night so as not to be captured. And during the day he hid with ordinary people, for whom such concealment could at any moment end in arrest and death. Fortunately, the teenager was able to be transported across the front line... There would have been no luck, but misfortune helped. One day Degen met a border guard he knew, Captain Sasha Gagua, who suggested that the guy get treatment from his relatives in Georgia. With great difficulty, Ion reached the south. After receiving medical treatment, he “attached” to a division of armored trains (in mountainous conditions this was a formidable technique). Participated in the defense of the Caucasus.

The air shook.
Shot.
Smoke.
On old trees
branches are cut off.
And I'm still alive.
And I'm unharmed.
Happening?

On October 15, 1942, Ion Degen, commander of the reconnaissance section of the 42nd separate armored train division, was wounded while performing a mission behind enemy lines.

After being discharged from the hospital, he underwent training until June 1944, first in the 21st training tank regiment, then at the Kharkov Tank School, after which he was appointed tank commander in the 2nd Separate Guards Tank Brigade, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel E.E. Dukhovny.

After the summer offensive of 1944 in Belarus and Lithuania, he received the nickname “Lucky” for his survivability. Subsequently - commander of a tank platoon; commander of a tank company (T-34-85). He is one of the Soviet tank aces: during his participation in hostilities as part of the 2nd Separate Guards Tank Brigade, the crew of I. Degen destroyed 12 German tanks (including 1 Tiger, 8 Panthers) and 4 self-propelled guns (in including 1 "Ferdinand" - a heavy self-propelled gun based on the "Tiger"), many guns, machine guns, mortars and enemy manpower.

I didn't hear any crying or moaning.
Above the towers there are tombstones of fire.
Within half an hour the battalion was gone.
But I’m still the same, saved by someone.
Perhaps only until tomorrow.

How can you not go crazy in this meat grinder? The 19-year-old is no longer a boy, but the man gives this advice:

On January 21, 1945, the company commanded by Ion Degen (on the ninth day of the offensive, only one company remained, surviving from the Second Separate Guards Tank Brigade) found itself in trouble. During the battle, both tanks, ours and the German, fired simultaneously. And both hit...

Jonah was wounded in the head. While he was getting out of the tank, a burst of bullets pierced his arms (seven bullets); a minute later, when he was sprawled out in the snow, four fragments hit his legs. - One Nazi trench, which we crossed, remained about forty meters behind us, the other was about a hundred meters ahead , recalled 82-year-old Degen already in 2007. - I saw how the Germans burned a tanker who fell into their clutches: the Nazis really “loved” the Second Separate Guards Tank Brigade... If the one who knocked me out had survived, he would have received three weeks of leave, an iron cross and ten thousand marks . That’s how much my tank cost... Then, in the snow, in the face of death, he had one thought: not to be given to the enemy alive. With wounded fingers, Ion pulled out the parabellum, but did not have time to shoot himself: everything swam before his eyes...

Seven wounds, twenty-five bullets and shrapnel, there was a shrapnel in the brain, the upper jaw was assembled from pieces of crushed bone, the right leg was mutilated. This is Degen's account from the war. 18 destroyed fascist tanks and one captured - Ion’s account to the Nazis. As a result of the last wound on January 21, 1945, severe disability.

And after the war, he realized his dream, graduated from the Chernivtsi Medical Institute, became the author of a unique method in orthopedics, performed several thousand unique operations, and parted with the scalpel not so long ago. In Kyiv, patients loved Dr. Degen very much, not even suspecting that he was the author of such amazing poetry. For 31 years now, Ion Degen has been living in the homeland of his ancestors - Israel.

I studied the irregularities of the Earth -
Horizontal lines on a kilometer map.
Pinned down by artillery fire,
I plowed through the dust with my nose.

I lifted a machine gun up the mountain.
You can't defeat her even easily.
Last step. That's all. And you will die.
But we still took the pass!

Irregularities of the Earth. Once again
They are like a warning to me,
As an ultra-fine tracking tool,
So as not to slide down to the level of the crawl space.

And because it's hard to go through this,
When hedgehogs and gaps are obstacles,
Leading astray where it is not necessary,
I only recognize straight paths.

Twice during the war, the command nominated tank ace Ion Degen for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And the refusal came twice.

Grandfather taught me to love my Motherland.

24-year-old Lieutenant Avioz Dagan, grandson of a hero of the Great Patriotic War, serves in the Golani brigade. He joined the fighting forces, following the example of Degen, who at the age of 16 went to the front. The young man says that he grew up listening to his grandfather’s war stories.
The grandson of the hero of the Great Patriotic War, tankman, doctor and poet Jon Degen serves in the 13th infantry battalion of the Golani brigade. 24-year-old Lieutenant Avioz with a similar-sounding surname Dagan conducts young fighter courses for conscripts: he teaches them military discipline and professional combat skills. On the eve of Victory Day, Degen and Dagan gave an interview to the IzRus portal, in which they talked about each other and what this holiday means to them.
Avioz, who was born in Israel, says that he decided to serve in combat units, following the example of his grandfather. However, Degen himself did not initially approve of his grandson’s choice. The hero of the Great Patriotic War insisted that Avioz, who successfully completed school, enter the university, because he believed that, having received a higher education, the young man would be able to bring more benefit to the army. “But Avioz, poking his index finger into my chest, said: “Your grandson will not be a jobnik,” recalls Degen. “How could I answer him when I went to the front at the age of 16?”
Now the former tanker believes that his grandson was right and is proud that he serves in the Golani brigade. According to Avioz, it was from his grandfather that he learned patriotism. To this Degen says that he did not deliberately try to instill in his grandson a love for the Jewish state. “He simply saw how my wife and I love Israel and understood that he could not do otherwise. Everyone in Israel should be patriots, since we have no other country, only here Jews can feel protected,” Degen said.
However, the veteran believes that Israeli youth also need to know the history of World War II. “A new generation cannot grow up without this,” Degen is convinced. In his opinion, the war against Nazism, in which one and a half million Jews participated, is as integral and important a part of Jewish history as the uprisings of Bar Kochba or the Maccabees. “500 thousand Jews served in the Red Army, 40% of whom died. The Jews were distinguished by their bravery, but due to anti-Semitism they were not given the well-deserved titles of Heroes of the USSR,” says Degen, who himself was twice nominated for this honorary title, but so and didn't receive it.
The veteran regrets that young Israelis today do not know this important period of history well enough, but his grandson is certainly not one of them. Avioz grew up listening to his grandfather's stories about the war. “Since I don’t speak Russian well, my father translated my grandfather’s poems and stories for me every Saturday, based on real events. And I looked forward to the next Saturday to listen to them,” says the lieutenant.
The young man especially remembered the story of how his grandfather was wounded. “This happened in 1945, a few months before the end of the war. It was in East Prussia. With my grandfather was his fellow tanker, who was very sad on the eve of the upcoming battle. My grandfather asked him: “Why don’t you want to drink?” he answered: “I don’t drink before I die.” And the next day he really died from a shot from a German tank. And my grandfather was seriously wounded, but the doctor in the hospital was able to save him a few years later. I met this doctor when I became a doctor myself,” says Avioz.
The lieutenant admits that although Victory Day is not a public holiday in Israel, it is a very important day for him. “For me, this date is like my grandfather’s second birthday. I definitely call him and congratulate him,” says Avioz. His famous grandfather is going to celebrate the holiday at home, since the comrades with whom he met earlier on Victory Day are no longer alive. Traditionally, Degen’s table will have vodka, herring and jacket potatoes.

You won't find his poems in school textbooks. Who is he? The man who made history.

My comrade, in mortal agony
Don't call your friends in vain.
Let me better warm my palms
Over your smoking blood.
Don't cry, don't moan, you're not little,
You're not wounded, you're just killed.
Let me take off your felt boots as a souvenir.
We still have to advance.
These poems were written by 19-year-old tank lieutenant Jonah Degen in December 1944.
After 9th grade, Jonah went as a counselor to a pioneer camp in Ukraine in the last peaceful days of June 1941. There the war found him. The military registration and enlistment office refused to draft him because he was too young. Then it seemed to him that in a few weeks the war would end in Berlin, and he would never make it to the front. Together with a group of the same young men (some of them were his classmates), having escaped from the evacuation train, they were able to reach the front and found themselves at the location of the 130th Infantry Division. The guys managed to be assigned to one platoon.
So in July 41, Jonah found himself at war.
Ninth grade ended only yesterday.
Will I ever graduate from 10th?
Holidays are a happy time.
And suddenly - a trench, a carbine, grenades,
And above the river a house burned to the ground,
Your deskmate is forever lost.
I'm helplessly confused about everything
What cannot be measured by school standards.

In a month, only two will remain from their platoon (31 people). And then - surrounded, wandering through the forests, wounded, hospital. He left the hospital only in January 1942. And again he demands to send him to the front, but he is still a year and a half shy of 18 - conscription age.
Jonah was sent to the rear to the south, to the Caucasus, where he learned to work on a tractor on a state farm. But the war itself came there in the summer of 42, and Degen was taken as a volunteer at the age of 17, he was again at the front, this time in a reconnaissance platoon. In October, he was wounded and again seriously. The bullet entered the shoulder, passed through the chest, stomach and exited through the thigh. The scouts pulled him unconscious from behind the front line.

On December 31, 1942, he was discharged from the hospital and, as a former tractor driver, was sent to study at a tank school. At the beginning of 1944, he graduated from college with honors and in the spring, junior lieutenant Jonah Degen, on a brand new T-34, was again at the front.
Thus began his 8 months of tank epic. And it is not just words. Eight months at the front, dozens of battles, tank duels - all this is many times greater than what fate meted out to many thousands of other tankers who died in that war. For Lieutenant Degen, commander of a tank company, it all ends in January 1945 in East Prussia.
How did he fight? Conscientiously. Although the T-34 was one of the best tanks of the Second World War, it was still outdated by 1944. And these tanks often burned, but Jonah was lucky for the time being, he was even called the lucky one.

You won't go crazy at the front,
Without learning to immediately forget.
We raked out damaged tanks
Anything that can be buried in a grave.
The brigade commander rested his chin on his jacket.
I hid my tears. Enough. Stop doing that.
And in the evening the driver taught me
How to dance padespan correctly.
Summer 1944
Random raid on enemy lines.
Just a platoon decided the fate of the battle.
But the orders will not go to us.
Thank you, at least no less than oblivion.
For our random crazy fight
The commander is recognized as a genius.
But the main thing is that you and I survived.
What is the truth? After all, that's how it works.
September 1944
When your comrades die one after another, a different attitude towards life and death appears. And in December 1944, he would write the most famous poem in his life, which will be called one of the best poems about the war:
..don’t cry, don’t moan, you’re not little,
you're not wounded, you're just killed.
Let me take off your felt boots as a souvenir.
we still have to advance.

He did not know that fate had measured out very little. Just a month. And many years later, his name will be carved on a granite monument at the mass grave. In the list of the best Soviet ace tankers, you will read at number fifty – Jonah Lazarevich Degen. guard lieutenant, 16 victories (including 1 Tiger, 8 Panthers), twice nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
On January 21, 1945, his T-34 was shot down, and the crew, who managed to jump out of the burning tank, was shot and showered with grenades by the Germans.
He was still alive when he was taken to the hospital. Seven bullet wounds, four shrapnel wounds, broken legs, open fracture of the jaw. Sepsis set in and at that time it was a death sentence. He was saved by the head physician, who demanded that he be given terribly scarce penicillin intravenously. It seemed like a waste of precious medicine, but God had other plans for him - Jonah survived!
Then there was rehabilitation, lifelong disability - and all this at the age of 19...
And then a long and very difficult life in which our tank hero was able to reach new incredible heights. While still in the hospital, he decided to become a doctor. In 1951 he graduated from medical school with honors. He became an operating orthopedic surgeon. In 1959, he was the first in the world to carry out replantation of the upper limb (he sewed back the severed arm of a tractor driver).
He will have both a candidate and a doctorate, a long path to recognition. This little fearless, lame Jew was very inconvenient, never shy about telling the truth, always ready to punch an presumptuous boor in the face, regardless of rank and position.
In 1977, Jonah Lazarevich left for Israel. And there he will be in demand as a doctor, will receive honor and respect, but will never renounce his homeland.

In 2012, like the rest of the veterans at the Russian embassy, the military attache presented him with the next anniversary awards to the sounds of ceremonial music. After the ceremony ended, our furry hero read these poems of his.
Speeches are usually drenched in molasses.
My mouth is set on edge from the unctuous words.
Royally on our hunched shoulders
Added a load of anniversary medals.
Solemnly, so cloyingly sweet,
Moisture is streaming down the cheeks from the eyes.
And you think, why do they need our glory?
Why... do they need our former courage?
Silently time is wise and tired
It is difficult to scar wounds, but no trouble.
On a jacket in the metal collection
Another medal for Victory Day.
And there was a time, I rejoiced at the load
And bitterly overcoming the pain of loss,
He shouted “I serve the Soviet Union!”
When they screwed the order to the tunic.
Now everything is smooth, like the surface of an abyss.
Equal within the limits of current morality
And those who were whore in the distant headquarters,
And those who were burned alive in the tanks.
On September 9, 2014, the premiere of the film “Degen” by Russian directors Mikhail Degtyar and Yulia Melamed, dedicated to Jonah Degen, took place at the Israeli Army Armored Forces Memorial Center in Latrun.
Jonah Lazarevich Degen died on April 28, 2017 in Israel, a couple of months short of turning 92 years old.
"At the end of last week, Ion Degen, a writer, poet, scientist and doctor, passed away. Degen died between Memorial Day and the holidays - Independence Day and Victory Day, each of these dates influenced his life. At the age of 16, Degen joined the ranks Red Army to fight the Nazis. At a young age, he became a tank platoon commander and a legend among tankers around the world. For his exploits, he was twice nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but due to his Jewish nationality, he was not awarded the highest awards. During the war, Ion Degen saw so much horror, suffering and pain that he decided to devote his life to saving the lives of others. In 1977, he repatriated to Israel and continued to study medicine and literature. May his memory be blessed." (Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel).
The time of heroes or the time of scoundrels - we ourselves always choose how to live.
There are people who make history. And these are not politicians at all, but people like Jonah Lazarevich Degen.

Degen is a tank poet who decided after the Great Patriotic War to become a doctor. He saved lives during the war and after the war. Twice nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, Degen, however, never received the highest degree of distinction of the USSR...

Ion Lazarevich Degen was born on June 4, 1925, in Mogilev-Podolsky, USSR (Mogilev-Podolsky, USSR), into a Jewish family of paramedics. His father died when Jonah turned three. His mother, an ideological communist, was a nurse and pharmacist, but due to the impossibility of finding work in her specialty, she became a laborer at a fruit and vegetable factory. From the age of twelve, Degen worked as a blacksmith's assistant.

Ion was also interested in literature, zoology and botany. He was completely delighted with the poem “Djinns,” written by the French writer Victor Hugo in his youth. He was inspired by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky and Vasily Lebedev-Kumach, and by the end of the war Degen knew by heart almost all the poems of Vladimir Mayakovsky.

On June 15, 1941, after graduating from ninth grade, 16-year-old Degen became a counselor at a pioneer camp located next to the railway bridge across the Dniester. The next month, he volunteered to go to the front - to a fighter battalion, where students in grades 9-10 were collected. Red Army soldier Ion took part in hostilities as part of the 130th Infantry Division. He ended up in a Poltava hospital after being wounded in the soft tissue of the thigh above the knee. Degen was very lucky with the way his body responded to the treatment, because at first his leg was almost amputated.

Ion was assigned to the reconnaissance department of the 42nd separate armored train division in mid-June 1942. This division was stationed in Georgia and had at its disposal a headquarters train and armored trains "Zheleznodorozhnik Kuzbassa" and "Sibiryak". In the fall of 1942, the division was tasked with covering the routes to Mozdok and Beslan. Degen became the commander of the reconnaissance unit.

On October 15, 1942, he was wounded again while on a mission behind enemy lines. After leaving the hospital, Degen became a cadet of the 21st training school.

th tank regiment in Shulaveri. Later he was sent to the first Kharkov Tank School in Chirchik (Kharkov Tank School, Chirchik). He graduated with honors in the spring of 1944 and received the rank of junior lieutenant.

In June 1944, Degen came under the command of Colonel Efim Evseevich Dukhovny (Y.E. Dukhovniy), when he was appointed tank commander in the second separate guards tank brigade. Ion took part in the Belarusian offensive operation of 1944 and became the commander of a tank platoon. He commanded a tank company (T-34-85) and was a guard lieutenant.

Degen said that on the battlefield he was not the only one who felt like a “suicide bomber.” Many did not care where they would come face to face with death - in a rifle battle of a penal battalion or a tank attack in their brigade. He was a real Soviet tank ace. During the battles as part of the second separate tank brigade, his crew destroyed 12 enemy tanks, including one Tiger and eight Panthers. Four self-propelled guns were destroyed, including one heavy self-propelled artillery unit "Ferdinand", several machine guns, mortars and German soldiers.

After the summer of 1944 in Belarus and Lithuania, Degen miraculously survived and earned the nickname “Lucky.” During the war, he received multiple burns and four wounds. As a “reward” from the Germans, he received 22 fragments and bullets. He received disability after being seriously wounded on January 21, 1945. Degen was twice nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but both times the matter was limited only to orders. In truth, his Jewish nationality prevented him from achieving the title.

Watching the exploits of doctors saving wounded soldiers, Ion decided after the war to become a doctor himself and never regretted his choice. He received a diploma from the Chernovtsy Medical Institute

in 1951. At first, Degen worked as an orthopedist-traumatologist at the Kiev Orthopedic Institute, until 1954, and then until 1977 in various Kyiv hospitals.

On May 18, 1959, Ion performed the first surgical engraftment of a limb or its segment separated from the body in medical practice. In his case, we were talking about replantation of a limb – the forearm. Degen defended his dissertations entitled “Non-free bone graft in a round stem” and “The therapeutic effect of magnetic fields in certain diseases of the musculoskeletal system.” He is the author of more than 90 scientific articles.

Being an orthodox communist, Degen began to understand how deceptive the Marxist-Leninist teaching was. He felt like his native state was rejecting him, like some kind of foreign object, and in 1997, at the age of 52, he immigrated to Israel. In the Promised Land, he continued to work as an orthopedic surgeon for over 20 years. Ion spoke about his life in the land of his ancestors in the novel “From the House of Slavery.” His wife took a new job as an architect at the University of Jerusalem, and his son, a theoretical physicist, defended his dissertation at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Among other works of Degen, who is interested in literature in his spare time, are such works as “War Never Ends”, “Fictional Stories of the Incredible”, “Immanuel Velikovsky”, “Heirs of Asclepius”, etc. His stories and essays were published not only in Russian and Israeli magazines, but also in Ukraine, Australia, USA and other countries.

One of Degen's most famous poems, "My comrade, in mortal agony...", was born in December 1944. For a long time, the verse was copied and passed on from mouth to mouth, with various distortions, in various versions. The poem acquired a folk character, and the authorship of the “unknown front-line soldier” Degen became known only in the late 1980s.

early years

He is one of the Soviet tank aces: during his participation in hostilities as part of the 2nd Separate Guards Tank Brigade, the crew of Ion Degen destroyed 12 German tanks (including 1 Tiger, 8 Panthers) and 4 self-propelled guns (including including 1 “Ferdinand”), many guns, machine guns, mortars and enemy manpower.

He suffered burns and four wounds, in which he received twenty-two fragments and bullets. As a result of the last serious wound on January 21, 1945, he received disability.

After the war

Seeing the noble feat of doctors saving the lives of wounded soldiers, I decided to become a doctor too. And I never regretted my choice of profession in the future.
Member of the editorial board of the popular magazine "Voice of the Disabled War Person", a permanent consultant at "Beit Alochem" - the Club of the Disabled Persons of the Israel Defense Forces, an expert in Torah, Tanakh and modern philosophy. The only Soviet tanker enrolled in the Society of Israeli Tankmen Honored for Heroism.
In addition to medicine, in his spare time he was interested in literature. Author of the books “From the House of Slavery”, “Poems from the Tablet”, “Immanuel Velikovsky”, “Portraits of Teachers”, “War Never Ends”, “Holograms”, “Fictional Stories of the Incredible”, “Four Years”, “Poems” , “The Heirs of Asclepius”, stories and essays in magazines in Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, the USA and other countries.

Poem "My Comrade"

Written in December 1944. For a long time it was copied and transmitted orally with numerous distortions (or in different versions) as a folk poem, that is, as a poem by an unknown front-line author. In fact, it has acquired a national character. Degen's authorship became known only in the late 1980s.

My comrade, in mortal agony
Don't call your friends in vain.
Let me better warm my palms
Over your smoking blood.
Don't cry, don't moan, you're not little,
You're not wounded, you're just killed.
Let me take off your felt boots as a souvenir.
We still have to advance.

What did Joseph Degen's verse do?
He cut sharper than an autogen
all that is called war,
damned, dirty, blood and dear.

Publications

Interview

(2007).

(2010).

(2013).

(documentary film, 2015).

Awards
Soviet
Order of the Red Banner (February 22, 1945)

Two Orders of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree (September 2, 1943, December 17, 1944)

Medal "For Courage" (August 17, 1944)

Medal "For victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945"

Foreign
Sources

Excerpt characterizing Degen, Ion Lazarevic
At the same instant, the large clock struck two, and others echoed in a thin voice in the living room. The prince stopped; from under hanging thick eyebrows, lively, brilliant, stern eyes looked at everyone and settled on the young princess. At that time, the young princess experienced the feeling that the courtiers experience at the royal exit, the feeling of fear and respect that this old man aroused in all those close to him. He stroked the princess's head and then, with an awkward movement, patted her on the back of her head.
“I’m glad, I’m glad,” he said and, still looking intently into her eyes, quickly walked away and sat down in his place. - Sit down, sit down! Mikhail Ivanovich, sit down.
He showed his daughter-in-law a place next to him. The waiter pulled out a chair for her.
- Go, go! - said the old man, looking at her rounded waist. – I was in a hurry, it’s not good!
He laughed dryly, coldly, unpleasantly, as he always laughed, with only his mouth and not his eyes.
“We need to walk, walk, as much as possible, as much as possible,” he said.
The little princess did not hear or did not want to hear his words. She was silent and seemed embarrassed. The prince asked her about her father, and the princess spoke and smiled. He asked her about mutual acquaintances: the princess became even more animated and began to talk, conveying her bows and city gossip to the prince.
“La comtesse Apraksine, la pauvre, a perdu son Mariei, et elle a pleure les larmes de ses yeux, [Princess Apraksina, poor thing, lost her husband and cried all her eyes out,” she said, becoming more and more animated.
As she perked up, the prince looked at her more and more sternly and suddenly, as if having studied her sufficiently and formed a clear concept about her, he turned away from her and turned to Mikhail Ivanovich.
- Well, Mikhaila Ivanovich, our Buonaparte is having a bad time. How Prince Andrei (he always called his son that in the third person) told me what forces were gathering against him! And you and I all considered him an empty person.
Mikhail Ivanovich, who absolutely did not know when you and I said such words about Bonaparte, but understood that he was needed to enter into a favorite conversation, looked at the young prince in surprise, not knowing what would come of it.
– He’s a great tactician! - the prince said to his son, pointing to the architect.
And the conversation turned again to the war, about Bonaparte and the current generals and statesmen. The old prince seemed to be convinced not only that all the current leaders were boys who did not understand the ABCs of military and state affairs, and that Bonaparte was an insignificant Frenchman who was successful only because there were no longer Potemkins and Suvorovs to oppose him; but he was even convinced that there were no political difficulties in Europe, there was no war, but there was some kind of puppet comedy that modern people played, pretending to do business. Prince Andrei cheerfully endured his father’s ridicule of new people and with visible joy called his father to a conversation and listened to him.
“Everything seems good that was before,” he said, “but didn’t the same Suvorov fall into the trap that Moreau set for him, and didn’t know how to get out of it?”
- Who told you this? Who said? - the prince shouted. - Suvorov! - And he threw away the plate, which Tikhon quickly picked up. - Suvorov!... After thinking, Prince Andrei. Two: Friedrich and Suvorov... Moreau! Moreau would have been a prisoner if Suvorov had had his hands free; and in his arms sat Hofs Kriegs Wurst Schnapps Rath. The devil is not happy with him. Come and find out these Hofs Kriegs Wurst Rath! Suvorov didn’t get along with them, so where can Mikhail Kutuzov get along? No, my friend,” he continued, “you and your generals cannot cope with Bonaparte; we need to take the French so that our own people don’t get to know our own and our own people don’t beat our own people. The German Palen was sent to New York, to America, for the Frenchman Moreau,” he said, hinting at the invitation that Moreau made this year to join the Russian service. - Miracles!... Were the Potemkins, Suvorovs, Orlovs Germans? No, brother, either you've all gone crazy, or I've lost my mind. God bless you, and we'll see. Bonaparte became their great commander! Hm!...
“I’m not saying anything about all the orders being good,” said Prince Andrei, “but I can’t understand how you can judge Bonaparte like that.” Laugh as you want, but Bonaparte is still a great commander!
- Mikhaila Ivanovich! - the old prince shouted to the architect, who, busy with the roast, hoped that they had forgotten about him. – Did I tell you that Bonaparte is a great tactician? There he is speaking.
“Of course, your Excellency,” answered the architect.
The prince laughed again with his cold laugh.
– Bonaparte was born in a shirt. His soldiers are wonderful. And he attacked the Germans first. But only lazy people didn’t beat the Germans. Since the world stood still, the Germans have been beaten by everyone. And they have no one. Only each other. He made his glory on them.
And the prince began to analyze all the mistakes that, according to his ideas, Bonaparte made in all his wars and even in state affairs. The son did not object, but it was clear that no matter what arguments were presented to him, he was just as little able to change his mind as the old prince. Prince Andrei listened, refraining from objections and involuntarily wondering how this old man, sitting alone in the village for so many years, could know and discuss in such detail and with such subtlety all the military and political circumstances of Europe in recent years.
“Do you think I, an old man, don’t understand the current state of affairs?” – he concluded. - And that’s where it is for me! I don't sleep at night. Well, where is this great commander of yours, where did he show himself?
“That would be long,” answered the son.
- Go to your Buonaparte. M lle Bourienne, voila encore un admirateur de votre goujat d'empereur! [here is another admirer of your servile emperor...] - he shouted in excellent French.
– Vous savez, que je ne suis pas bonapartiste, mon prince. [You know, Prince, that I am not a Bonapartist.]
“Dieu sait quand reviendra”... [God knows when he will return!] - the prince sang out of tune, laughed even more out of tune and left the table.
The little princess remained silent throughout the argument and the rest of the dinner, looking fearfully first at Princess Marya and then at her father-in-law. When they left the table, she took her sister-in-law by the hand and called her to another room.
“Comme c"est un homme d"esprit votre pere," she said, "c"est a cause de cela peut etre qu"il me fait peur. [What a smart man your father is. Maybe that’s why I’m afraid of him.]
- Oh, he's so kind! - said the princess.
Prince Andrey left the next day in the evening. The old prince, without deviating from his order, went to his room after dinner. The little princess was with her sister-in-law. Prince Andrei, dressed in a traveling frock coat without epaulettes, settled down with his valet in the chambers assigned to him. Having examined the stroller and the packing of the suitcases himself, he ordered them to be packed. In the room there remained only those things that Prince Andrei always took with him: a box, a large silver cellar, two Turkish pistols and a saber, a gift from his father, brought from near Ochakov. Prince Andrei had all these travel accessories in great order: everything was new, clean, in cloth covers, carefully tied with ribbons.
In moments of departure and a change in life, people who are able to think about their actions usually find themselves in a serious mood of thought. At these moments the past is usually reviewed and plans for the future are made. Prince Andrei's face was very thoughtful and tender. He, with his hands behind him, quickly walked around the room from corner to corner, looking ahead of him, and thoughtfully shaking his head. Whether he was afraid to go to war, or sad to leave his wife - maybe both, but, apparently, not wanting to be seen in this position, hearing footsteps in the hallway, he hastily freed his hands, stopped at the table, as if he was tying the cover of a box, and assumed his usual, calm and impenetrable expression. These were the heavy steps of Princess Marya.
“They told me that you ordered a pawn,” she said, out of breath (she was apparently running), “and I really wanted to talk to you alone.” God knows how long we will be separated again. Aren't you angry that I came? “You have changed a lot, Andryusha,” she added, as if to explain such a question.
She smiled, pronouncing the word “Andryusha”. Apparently, it was strange for her to think that this stern, handsome man was the same Andryusha, a thin, playful boy, a childhood friend.
-Where is Lise? – he asked, only answering her question with a smile.
“She was so tired that she fell asleep in my room on the sofa. Ax, Andre! Que! tresor de femme vous avez,” she said, sitting down on the sofa opposite her brother. “She’s a perfect child, such a sweet, cheerful child.” I loved her so much.
Prince Andrei was silent, but the princess noticed the ironic and contemptuous expression that appeared on his face.
– But one must be lenient towards small weaknesses; who doesn't have them, Andre! Don't forget that she was brought up and grew up in the world. And then her situation is no longer rosy. You have to put yourself in everyone's position. Tout comprendre, c "est tout pardonner. [Whoever understands everything will forgive everything.] Think about what it must be like for her, poor thing, after the life to which she is accustomed, to part with her husband and remain alone in the village and in her situation? This very hard.
Prince Andrei smiled, looking at his sister, as we smile when listening to people whom we think we see right through.
“You live in a village and don’t find this life terrible,” he said.
- I'm different. What to say about me! I don’t wish for another life, and I cannot wish for it, because I don’t know any other life. And just think, Andre, for a young and secular woman to be buried in the best years of her life in the village, alone, because daddy is always busy, and I... you know me... how poor I am in ressources, [in interests.] for a woman accustomed to the best to society. M lle Bourienne is one...
“I don’t like her very much, your Bourienne,” said Prince Andrei.
- Oh no! She is very sweet and kind, and most importantly, she is a pitiful girl. She has no one, no one. To tell the truth, I not only don’t need her, but she’s shy. You know, I have always been a savage, and now I’m even more so. I love being alone... Mon pere [Father] loves her very much. She and Mikhail Ivanovich are two persons to whom he is always affectionate and kind, because they are both blessed by him; as Stern says: “we love people not so much for the good they have done to us, but for the good we have done to them.” Mon pere took her as an orphan sur le pavé, [on the pavement], and she is very kind. And mon pere loves her reading style. She reads aloud to him in the evenings. She reads great.
- Well, to be honest, Marie, I think it’s sometimes hard for you because of your father’s character? - Prince Andrei suddenly asked.
Princess Marya was at first surprised, then frightened by this question.
– ME?... Me?!... Is it hard for me?! - she said.
– He has always been cool; and now it’s getting hard, I think,” said Prince Andrei, apparently on purpose to puzzle or test his sister, speaking so easily about his father.
“You are good to everyone, Andre, but you have some kind of pride of thought,” said the princess, more following her own train of thought than the course of the conversation, “and this is a great sin.” Is it possible to judge a father? And even if it were possible, what other feeling than veneration [deep respect] could arouse such a person as mon pere? And I am so satisfied and happy with him. I only wish that you all were as happy as I am.
The brother shook his head in disbelief.
“The one thing that’s hard for me, I’ll tell you the truth, Andre, is my father’s way of thinking in religious terms. I don’t understand how a person with such a huge mind cannot see what is clear as day and can be so mistaken? This is my only misfortune. But here, too, lately I have seen a shadow of improvement. Lately his ridicule has not been so caustic, and there is one monk whom he received and spoke to him for a long time.
“Well, my friend, I’m afraid that you and the monk are wasting your gunpowder,” said Prince Andrei mockingly but affectionately.
- Ah! mon ami. [A! My friend.] I just pray to God and hope that He will hear me. Andre,” she said timidly after a minute of silence, “I have a big request to ask of you.”
- What, my friend?
- No, promise me that you won’t refuse. It will not cost you any work, and there will be nothing unworthy of you in it. Only you can console me. Promise, Andryusha,” she said, putting her hand into the reticule and holding something in it, but not yet showing it, as if what she was holding was the subject of the request and as if before receiving the promise to fulfill the request, she could not take it out of the reticule It is something.
She looked timidly and pleadingly at her brother.
“Even if it cost me a lot of work...”, answered Prince Andrei, as if guessing what was the matter.
- Think whatever you want! I know you are the same as mon pere. Think what you want, but do it for me. Do it please! My father’s father, our grandfather, wore it in all the wars...” She still didn’t take what she was holding out of the reticule. - So you promise me?
- Of course, what's the matter?
- Andre, I will bless you with the image, and you promise me that you will never take it off. Do you promise?
“If he doesn’t stretch his neck by two pounds... To please you...” said Prince Andrei, but at that very second, noticing the distressed expression that his sister’s face took on at this joke, he repented. “Very glad, really very glad, my friend,” he added.
“Against your will, He will save and have mercy on you and turn you to Himself, because in Him alone there is truth and peace,” she said in a voice trembling with emotion, with a solemn gesture holding in both hands in front of her brother an oval ancient icon of the Savior with a black face in silver chasuble on a silver chain of fine workmanship.
She crossed herself, kissed the icon and handed it to Andrey.
- Please, Andre, for me...
Rays of kind and timid light shone from her large eyes. These eyes illuminated the entire sickly, thin face and made it beautiful. The brother wanted to take the icon, but she stopped him. Andrei understood, crossed himself and kissed the icon. His face was at the same time tender (he was touched) and mocking.
- Merci, mon ami. [Thank you my friend.]
She kissed his forehead and sat down on the sofa again. They were silent.
“So I told you, Andre, be kind and generous, as you always have been.” Don’t judge Lise harshly,” she began. “She is so sweet, so kind, and her situation is very difficult now.”
“It seems that I didn’t tell you anything, Masha, that I should blame my wife for anything or be dissatisfied with her.” Why are you telling me all this?
Princess Marya blushed in spots and fell silent, as if she felt guilty.
“I didn’t tell you anything, but they already told you.” And it makes me sad.
Red spots appeared even more strongly on Princess Marya’s forehead, neck and cheeks. She wanted to say something and could not say it. The brother guessed right: the little princess cried after dinner, said that she foresaw an unhappy birth, was afraid of it, and complained about her fate, about her father-in-law and her husband. After crying, she fell asleep. Prince Andrei felt sorry for his sister.

Degen Ion is a famous domestic and Israeli writer and poet. One of his most famous works is the poem "My Comrade, in Mortal Agony." He took an active part in the Second World War, serving in tank forces. He was also involved in science and medicine. He specialized in traumatology and orthopedics. In 1973 he received the title of Doctor of Medical Sciences.

Biography of the poet

Degen Ion was born on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. He was born in 1925 in the city of Mogilev-Podolsky. Now it is located in the Vinnytsia region.

His father was a paramedic. Mom was also involved in medicine, she worked as a nurse at a hospital. As we already know, in the future Degen Ion decided to follow in the footsteps of his parents.

The boy began working at the age of 12. His first profession was as a blacksmith's assistant. At the same time, an overt interest in botany, zoology and literature appeared.

The hero of our article graduated from ninth grade exactly a week before the Nazi attack on the USSR. He went to work at a summer camp as a pioneer leader. The camp was located near the bridge over the Dniester River. As Degen Ion himself admits, at that time he grew up as a sincere fanatic who was wholeheartedly devoted to the communist system.

Beginning of the war

At the summer pioneer camp, Ion Lazarevich Degen learned about the attack of Nazi troops on the Soviet Union. Already in July he went to the front as a volunteer.

He was assigned to a fighter battalion, which consisted entirely of Ion’s peers - high school students from Soviet schools. Degen became a Red Army soldier. He took part in battles against the Germans as part of the 130th Infantry Division. He was surrounded and wounded, but still went out to his troops. After being wounded, he was sent to a hospital in Poltava for recovery. Here he was seriously threatened with amputation of his leg, but Ion managed to avoid this almost miraculously.

Intelligence service

Returned to service by the summer of 1942. He was assigned to the intelligence department of the armored train division. He went to serve in the territory of Georgia. There were few trains in the division - "Zheleznodorozhnik Kuzbassa" and "Sibiryak", as well as the train in which the headquarters moved.

The division command was tasked with blocking directions to the cities of Beslan and Mozdok. Degen proved himself on missions while carrying out this mission. He was appointed commander of the intelligence department. While performing a mission behind enemy lines, he was wounded a second time. This happened in October 1942.

After being discharged from the hospital, he went to serve in a tank regiment located near the town of Shulaveri. Later he was transferred by the command to the Kharkov Tank School, which by that time had been relocated to the city of Chirchik on the territory of the Uzbek SSR. He graduated from college in the summer of 1944, receiving a diploma with honors. As well as the rank of junior lieutenant in the Soviet army.

Tanker ace

After college, he was assigned to a tank brigade led by Colonel Efim Dukhovnoy. In 1944 he distinguished himself during the Belarusian offensive operation.

He was noted for his bravery on the battlefield and was appointed commander of a tank platoon, and then company commander. Ion Degen himself, whose biography was closely connected with the Great Patriotic War, recalled that at that time he and his comrades felt like real suicide bombers. They were not then interested in whether they would return alive from the mission.

These days, Degen is considered one of the recognized Soviet tank aces. Participating in battles as part of the second separate guards tank brigade, the crew under the leadership of Degen destroyed twelve enemy tanks. Including as many as eight “Panthers” and one “Tiger”. Four fascist self-propelled guns were also disabled. And the number of destroyed machine guns, guns, mortars, as well as destroyed enemies, soldiers and officers of the Third Reich cannot be counted.

While fighting on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, he was repeatedly wounded. He was wounded four times in tank troops and suffered severe burns. During the war years, doctors counted about 20 bullets and fragments that were taken from the hero of our article. In January 1945, after another serious injury, Degen was awarded disability.

Degen is called a hero of the Great Patriotic War, who was never awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Although he was introduced to him twice. The last time this happened was after a bloody battle in January 1945, when Degen served as commander of a tank company.

He was then presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by the commander of the Third Belorussian Front, General Ivan Chernyakhovsky. However, both times the command was limited to orders.

He has two Orders of the Patriotic War of the second degree and one of the first, the Order of the Red Banner, as well as the medal "For Courage".

The reason why Degen was not awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was never officially announced. But, by all accounts, it was only because he was a Jew.

Fate after the war

On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, Degen decided what profession he would choose for the rest of his life. He was struck by the professionalism and heroism of the doctors who saved the lives of soldiers on the battlefield. That is why Degen also decided to become a doctor. As he himself admits, he should never regret this decision in the future.

In 1951, 26-year-old Ion graduated from the medical institute in Chernivtsi. Receives a diploma with honors. He begins his medical career at the Orthopedic Institute in Kyiv. Works as a traumatologist-orthopedist. From 1954 to 1977 he worked in the same specialization in various hospitals in the capital of the Ukrainian SSR.

In 1959 he carried out a unique operation. No one had done this before in medicine. Degen managed to replant the forearm, that is, surgically reattach a limb separated from the body.

Scientific work

At the same time, Degen began to actively engage in scientific work. In 1965 he managed to defend his Ph.D. thesis. The defense took place at the Central Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics in Moscow. The subject of the research of the hero of our article was non-free bone grafts in a round stem.

After another seven years, Degen defended his doctoral dissertation and became a doctor of medical sciences. This time, at the surgical council of the second medical institute in the Soviet capital, he presents a paper devoted to the effective therapeutic effect of magnetic fields in diseases of the human musculoskeletal system. And here Degen became a pioneer. This was the first doctoral dissertation devoted to magnetic therapy.

In addition to recognized medical methods, Degen did not shy away from using rare ones, which many called questionable. For example, he was seriously interested in hypnosis, actively using it in his medical practice.

The scientific heritage of Ion Degen amounts to almost a hundred articles on medical topics. In 1977, he immigrated to Israel, where he continued his career as an orthopedic traumatologist. He helped people in the medical office for another two decades.

Artistic creativity

The poet Ion Degen began writing poetry during the Great Patriotic War. In peacetime, he was a member of the editorial board of the magazine “Voice of the Disabled War Person,” and regularly consulted at the Israel Defense Forces Disabled Persons Club. At the same time, throughout his life he was considered an extremely educated person. He was a great expert in the Torah and the positions of modern philosophers.

His passion for literature was similar to his passion for medicine. Ion Degen, whose poems were often published, published several books - “Poems from the Tablet”, “War Never Ends”, “Heirs of Asclepius”, as well as essays, short stories and novellas. They were published in literary magazines in Russia, Ukraine, Israel, the USA, Australia and many other countries.

Jonah Degen, whose poems about the war remain classics for many, was considered one of the most prominent Jewish poets of the Great Patriotic War.

Death of Degen

Degen died in April 2017. He was 91 years old. The poet and doctor is buried in Israel. Many important and famous people gave farewell speeches over his body. Among them is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He noted Degen's exploits during the war against the Nazis, as well as the suffering, horror and pain that he had to endure.

Degen is buried in a cemetery in Tel Aviv.

Degen family

Degen has never been married. Among his relatives there are several well-known names. His brother worked all his life as a communications engineer, graduating from the University of Toulouse. Nephew Mikhail Degen became a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and conducted research in the field of electronic theory of crystals.

His second cousin lived in the USA. Frances Degen Horowitz is known as the author of books on early childhood development and educational psychology.

"My comrade"

Degen Ion Lazarevich, whose poems are well known to many, is the author of the text, which for many years was attributed to an unknown front-line soldier. It was written in December 1944 during the Great Patriotic War. Only later did it become known that it was written by Ion Degen.

“My Comrade” is a short text that talks about the terrible horrors of war, the mortal agony that soldiers endure, as well as rational cynicism, without which one cannot survive in war. The lyrical hero of the poem says goodbye to his deceased comrade, and finally takes off his felt boots. Explaining that those who remained alive still had to advance.

The poems were very popular. Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko called them stunning in the brutal power of truth.

Another famous work by Ion Degen is “War Never Ends.” This is a collection of poems, stories and essays dedicated to the Great Patriotic War.

This is a documentary prose that honestly and without embellishment talks about the horrors that had to be faced in the fight against the Nazi invaders. The stories “Fragile Crystal”, “The First Medal for Courage”, “Another Meeting”, “On the Other Shore” remain relevant and in demand among readers today.

As the author himself states, the war never ends only for those who went to the front young. Degen includes himself among them. After all, when the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, he was only 16 years old. The book was first published in Israel in 1995.

His latest published book is a collection of poems, "I'm All Embalmed by War."