Wilhelm Kube was born on November 13, 1887 in Glogau, Silesia. He studied at the humanitarian gymnasium and the University of Berlin. In 1911 he joined the German Social Party. From 1912 he was a journalist and editor of two conservative newspapers. Member of the First World War. In 1918 he was general secretary of the Silesian branch of the German Conservative Party. In 1919-1920 he founded the Bismarck League and the Bismarck Youth in Breslau and became their leader. In September 1920 he moved to Berlin. In 1920-1923 - General Secretary of the German National Party (GNP). In 1922, he was elected from the GNP as a member of the city government of Berlin. Since May 4, 1924 - Member of the Reichstag from the GNP. Since 1926 - a member of the People's Social Union (Berlin). In 1927 he joined the NSDAP (party card No. 71 682). Since January 2, 1928 - Gauleiter of Ostmark, during re-registration he received party card No. 66. On March 6, 1933, Gau Kurmark was formed from Gau Ostmark and Brandenburg, Gauleiter of which Kube was appointed. Since May 20, 1928 - Member of the Reichstag and the Landtag of Prussia, head of the NSDAP faction in the Landtag of Prussia. From March 25, 1933 - Chief President of Brandenburg. From July 1933 - Prussian State Councilor. From June 18, 1933 - Chief President of the Border Mark Posen-West Prussia. On September 29, 1933, he joined the SS (ticket number 114 771) and immediately received the rank of oberführer. Dregs season 4 trailer organization because of a serious misconduct - without trial or investigation, Cuba shot several disobedient officers and soldiers. Fuhrer Martin Bormann, about her supposedly Jewish origin (which was not true). In addition, the Supreme Party Court has accumulated enough facts about Cuba's corrupt activities and abuses of power. On March 11, he left the SS, and on August 7, 1936, by decision of the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP, Kube was removed from the post of Gauleiter Kurmark and Ober-President of Brandenburg and the Posen-West Prussia Border Mark. Despite this, he remained a member of the Reichstag, continued to be called Gauleiter and Chief President, and on April 10, 1938 he was again elected to the Reichstag on the "Fuhrer List". In the next 4 years, apart from deputy activity, Cuba did not work anywhere. In May - June 1941, the top Nazi leadership began to consider various options for possible employment in Cuba. The surviving correspondence on this issue shows that such options as the position of the curator of the Higher Technical School and the Medical Academy of Danzig, as well as the curator of the University of Königsberg, were considered, but Hitler considered such positions unworthy for the Gauleiter and wished that Kube was certainly appointed to a responsible position in the east .After the start of the Great Patriotic War on July 17, 1941, Cuba was appointed General Commissar of Belarus (headquartered in Minsk). The General Commissariat "Belorutheniya" was formed as part of the "Reichskommissariat Ostland", which, in turn, was part of the specially created Imperial Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories of Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg. The arrival of Cuba to this position was marked by the execution of 2278 prisoners of the Minsk ghetto - saboteurs and activists. While in the position of General Commissar, he pursued a brutal occupation policy, accompanied by the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians. One of the direct perpetrators of the destruction of the civilian population in the village of Khatyn by the hands of assassins from the 36th SS division "Dirlewanger" (out of 152 residents, only three were saved). At the same time, he provided assistance to collaborationist organizations, allowed the use of the white-red-white flag and the Chase emblem in the occupied territories. Here is what Z. Poznyak writes about those events.

65 years ago, these days, occupied Minsk was stirred up by the assassination of the General Commissioner of Belarus, Wilhelm Kube.

On the night of September 22-23, an English magnetic mine exploded in his bedroom, which was planted in Cuba's bed by a young woman, Elena Mazanik. She worked at the mansion as a servant.

Every Belarusian schoolchild knows this story. But it turns out that for all the drama and heroism of the textbook version, other events also happened to the participants in this story in life.

This murder tied the two together for life. different women. Both the victim and the killer remembered each other all their lives. The widow of Kube, without even demanding revenge, sought contact with Elena Mazanik. Elena, having become a Hero according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, lived the rest of her life in fear and loneliness, living in apartments and locking herself up with a dozen locks...

The first letter came in 1976

Our regular reader, who in Soviet times worked as a translator at the Sputnik International Youth Tourism Bureau, Oleg USACHEV, came to the editorial office of the newspaper. Numerous questions from German tourists, which he had to answer at one time, forced Oleg Ivanovich to study the history of the murder of Cuba somewhat more carefully than textbooks and museum stands stated.

Since 1976, Oleg Ivanovich faced not only the incredible interest of the Germans in the murder of Cuba, but also attempts to meet with Elena Mazanik and betray her a personal message from Anita Kube.

Speaks K.P.BY Oleg USACHEV:

In the summer of 1976, I conducted a tour of Minsk and Khatyn for tourists on the Druzhba train from the GDR ...

Editorial

The so-called "Friendship" trains came to Minsk from East Berlin. Such cooperation was established with the aim of uniting socialist Germany, which was already falling apart, with other socialist republics. Since the mid-70s, the phenomenon has become widespread, several Druzhba trains arrived in Minsk every day. Most of these vouchers were free or cost symbolically.

The Druzhba trains were serviced by translators from the International Youth Tourism Bureau. They, as a rule, did not take pictures with tourists and did not exchange addresses, and if they suddenly gave an address, then they all had one: a foreign hostel.

- ... That's when in 1976 several people came up to me at once with questions about Elena Mazanik: would there be a meeting with her at the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. The Germans already knew from previous tourists that Elena used to come to the museum. And they said that one of the tourists is a relative of Anita and he has a letter for Elena.

At the museum, I conveyed the request to the staff ... They immediately ran away to confer behind closed doors. Mazanik did not come to meet the tourists of this train.

A week later I was back at the museum with another Druzhba train from the GDR. Museum staff advised me to forget about this story. It was decided not to advertise Anita's attempts to get in touch with Mazanik.

And in the summer of the same 1976, on one of the next Druzhba trains, a young German woman asked me to give her my address.

- Oleg, can I have your address?

I didn't refuse. Then she asked:

"Won't it scare you that I'm related to Cuba?"

Soon a postcard arrived at my home address, in response to which I sent a letter. Containing nothing, just on duty "thank you", "how are you." From the experience of correspondence with other Germans, I know that they are an obligatory people, and if she received my letter, she would send an answer ... But I received nothing more from her ...

In those years, Elena herself was not against meeting Anita. But she was not advised to do this by senior comrades from the KGB. Like, these meetings will be used for the purpose of anti-Soviet propaganda. Possible provocation. God forbid Elena will have to ask for forgiveness from Anita!

Although, most likely, Anita simply wanted to reliably find out from Mazanik how her beloved husband died. She forgave her former servant long ago, which she actually wrote about in her letters to Minsk. After all, the order to kill her husband came from Stalin himself, and he could not be disobeyed. She even felt sorry for Elena….

In 1992 the letter reached

The story of letters from Anita stretches right up to the present day.

Tells K.P.BY Oleg USACHEV:

In 2007, I tracked down the husband of Elena Mazanik's niece Alexander Pigulevsky. For me, there were still many incomprehensible things in the story with Mazanik. Many people came to Pigulevsky before me... He did not trust everyone. But Alexander Alexandrovich gave me a box with old photographs. Reluctantly, but gave. And in them I unexpectedly found a letter from Anita Kube. It was dated 1992. And separately lay photos of Anita with adult sons. I have heard about this letter before. I was told that in 1992 a German arrived again on the Druzhba train with a letter from Anita. He directly carried it to the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in the mass department, but they were afraid to take it there. And they refused under the pretext that the museum is not authorized to accept such letters. But an employee of the Chernoglazova museum nevertheless took the letter, deciding to betray it to Mazanik.

They say that Elena threw a tantrum when she saw the letter. In the KGB, she was scared to death with provocations. Elena refused to go to the museum for a letter, saying that I wouldn’t go, I don’t need to. Chernoglazova insisted: the letter does not oblige you to anything, take it, and then do what you want ... And the fact that I was holding this letter in my hands indicated that Mazanik then, in 1992, - took it! And I read it. And she kept it until her death.

I looked at the envelope, signed by Anita's hand, for a long time, and then Pigulevsky himself offered to give it to me ... "But no one needs it, take it."

I made copies of almost all the photos. About a hundred.

And what to do with the letter? To the war museum? To the national archives? But this is connected with Anita… The National Archives took electronic copies of the photographs. And with the consent of Pigulevsky, I presented the original letter to Raisa Andreevna Chernoglazova, the very museum employee who handed this letter to Elena Mazanik in 1992.

Oleg Ivanovich is sure that there were more letters. At least two more letters are known, which were given to Elena Mazanik in different years by the German journalist Paul Kohl. Kohl claims that Mazanik tore the first letter in front of him. A few years later he brought another letter. Elena took it...

HOW THEIR FATES HAPPENED

Anita Kube lived to 95 and died in a nursing home where she wanted to move herself. Care was provided to her by highly qualified doctors and attendants. In publications in the German press, it was stated that in last years Anita suffered from a mental disorder. Her sons often visited her.

Elena Mazanik died at the age of 82, in recent years she suffered from an acute mental disorder. She constantly kept housekeepers in the house. And having retired at the age of 46, she lived under the supervision of her niece Lidia Pigulevskaya. In perestroika times, the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union Elena Mazanik was sold by relatives.

Before the war, Elena had two sons. Zhenya - in 1935 at the age of one and a half years. She gave her son to the Belarusian village of Poddegtyarnoye to relatives, where the child fell ill with an infectious disease and died of dehydration. That's what the relatives say.

Mazanik lost her second son in 1939. Pregnant Elena was severely shaken in the back of a truck. Premature birth, and the child, born a few weeks before the term, could not be saved. He lived for several days.

In Minsk, women knew each other for about a year, but did not communicate. From 1942 to September 1943, Mazanik carried out orders from the Kube family: she laid tables, cleaned the premises of adjutants. Contrary to popular belief, Elena did not know German, she spoke in a couple of phrases.

Before the war, Mazanik was an employee of the NKVD for 10 years, working in NKVD canteens and government dachas. There she learned how to serve dinners and banquets, walk dogs, and babysit children. At the age of 29, she favorably differed from the young students who were taken by the Germans to work as servants. Large, workable. In the Kube mansion, her name was Galina-big. Big legs, arms.

Elena wrote in her autobiography that Kube hired her knowing that she was an employee of the NKVD. He decided that there would be no turning back for her. After all, all who worked for the Germans were considered traitors to the motherland.

Anita was different. A young actress from Hamburg, she came to a provincial German town to play in the drama "Totila". Its author was the famous German politician Wilhelm Kube. And this was Anita's last role in the theater. Then a happy marriage and the birth of four children. True, the fourth son never saw his father. Cuba was killed while Anita was pregnant.

Photo from the personal archive of Oleg USACHEV.

Read about how Elena Mazanik lived in recent years in Minsk in the "fat girl" in October.

The secret operations of the underground and Soviet intelligence in the territories occupied by the Wehrmacht troops are one of the stages of the Great Patriotic War, which historians study no less closely than major operations like the Battle of Kursk or the defense of Stalingrad. In the course of partisan operations, not only was the logistical support of the enemy troops disrupted, but the most valuable military personnel of Nazi Germany were also destroyed. Genocide at the hands of the locals The command of the Wehrmacht never differed in special love for the inhabitants of the occupied territories: the entire able-bodied population was sent to work in Germany and other European countries. Troops who posed a potential security threat in the occupied territory were imprisoned in camps or simply shot. for all the hatred of the Nazis for the Russians, it was extremely difficult to implement such a plan solely on their own. Gauleiters in Ukraine and Belarus constantly encountered cases of abduction and murder of not only soldiers, but also officers. A real hunt was carried out for the participants in the partisan movement, for which not only military operations involving armored vehicles and infantry were used - the discovery of underground workers was accompanied by large-scale undercover work through local agents recruited by the Nazis. However, Ukrainian nationalists, who were recruited by the administration of the occupied territories to do dirty work, formed the most difficult impression on the soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht. In addition to helping to conduct operations involving the Wehrmacht, the policemen were actively involved in other tasks, during which a huge number of victims were constantly left. The surviving SS veterans in their memoirs recall that, in addition to direct participation in round-ups and raids to destroy partisans, local Nazi “assistants” often made independent, unsubstantiated decisions.
The forces of local nationalists, suddenly filled with hatred for fellow villagers, brothers and sisters, shot not only members of the underground detachments, but also all sympathizers of the partisans and the Red Army. Historians note that even the SS Einsatzgruppen, which were distinguished by the greatest cruelty, did not stand next to the Ukrainian, Belarusian nationalists and other traitors, who exterminated the local population without any regret for the mere assumption of aiding the partisans. It was very difficult to pacify such executioners: they were part of paramilitary formations and nationalists who received army weapons could kill up to a thousand people in a day. A special type of violence was preceded by large-scale propaganda work: for example, in the territories of Ukraine and Belarus occupied at the beginning of the war, loudspeakers and radio regularly broadcast messages about the capture of Moscow, Leningrad and the advancement of Hitler's troops to the Caucasus. At first, all this had the desired effect: resistance sentiments were suppressed, nationalists were put on a pencil and directed to the things necessary for "great Germany". However, the work done by the Soviet counterintelligence was 100% justified: not only was (relatively) mass informing the local population organized, but also channels for supply, communication and recruitment into the partisan movement were established. Almost immediately after agreeing on the last details, the partisans began a rear war against the Nazis and the local residents who joined them. Cleansing the tops The leadership of sabotage operations behind enemy lines was entrusted to the legendary Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov. However, the tasks of counterintelligence, in addition to disrupting the logistics, included the collection of information and the direct elimination of the Gauleiters (governors) of the occupied territories. However, in addition to the infamous Reichskommissar of Ukraine Eric Koch, who was distinguished by incredible cruelty towards the Slavs and Russians in general, there was a “manager” on the territory of Belarus.
Wilhelm von Kube was not held in high esteem by his colleagues - the Belarusian appointment was for him more a recognition of professional incompetence and exile than a well-deserved position. Rumors about the harsh temper of Wilhelm Kube grew from party work and service in Germany: the ambitious and power-hungry Kube “distinguished himself” in 1936 by ordering the execution without any trial and observance of the formalities of several officers and soldiers who refused to follow a direct order. Severe temper Cuba also manifested itself after the appointment to the eastern territories: the appearance of one of the most devoted Nazi functionaries was accompanied by an unprecedented surge in cooperation between the SS and nationalists and large-scale punitive operations. resettled in the so-called Minsk ghetto. Wilhelm Kube openly feuded with the first persons of Nazi Germany.
In particular, Heinrich Himmler did not share the approach of the SS Gruppenfuehrer - the rejection of the widespread identification and destruction of Jews. However, Cuba was not a friend of humanity either: the Gauleiter of Belarus preferred a thorough selection of the most able-bodied and only then mass purges of all the “inferior” by the hands of local nationalists to total extermination. Cuba was not a common goal for the Soviet underground. The liquidation of a person who occupied such a high post assumed a good psychological effect on all the accomplices of the enemy, however, the entourage and assistants of the SS Gruppenfuehrer not only organized good security, but also carefully, often personally selected all the service personnel. “The destruction of such figures, of course, was serious achievement for the underground. The importance of such an event cannot be overestimated - the de facto Gauleiter has always been Hitler's protege, the executor of his will. This means that the assassination of the leader is not only a disruption of the genocide, but also a blow to the Fuhrer personally, ”the German historian Kurt Wurtz notes in an interview with the Zvezda TV channel. Historians also note that there are several known ways in which it was planned to eliminate Wilhelm Kube: blowing up a car, an explosion in an office, an explosion at an event, or several types of poisoning, including documents sprayed with poison. However, upon closer examination, it became clear that the methods were too complicated and dangerous to perform. Unfeminine work The development of Wilhelm Kube was carried out by several battle groups at once. The first relatively successful attempt to kill a Nazi protégé in Belarus took place on June 22, 1943: the partisans tried to blow up the gruppenführer in the theater building, which he, being a great lover and connoisseur of art, regularly visited. However, Cuba itself was not injured in the bomb explosion: the names of 70 dead and more than 100 wounded Wehrmacht and SS officers appeared in the incident report, but the partisans never reached the Gauleiter.
Two more attempts to blow up Wilhelm Kube were also unsuccessful: only a dozen party functionaries, SS officers and security service soldiers died. It was decided to abandon the tactics of "exit" explosions. In the course of observing the headquarters of the Nazis, assessing the routes convenient for attacking, the scouts found out that it would not be possible to eliminate Cuba in the office or while traveling on official business without casualties among the partisans. Instead of repeating dangerous special operations with the placement of explosive devices outside the security zones, it was decided to act from the inside - to recruit and involve in cooperation people who are aware of the daily household affairs of the Gruppenfuehrer Cuba. Then there was a final understanding of the mechanics of solving a delicate issue: only service personnel could gain access to the personal belongings of the Gruppenfuehrer and get closer to the rest. The subtle recruitment process involved close communication with women who worked in Cuba's house. In the process of discussion, a decision was born to involve the legendary Ganna Chernaya, a member of the Belarusian partisan movement Maria Osipova, who had recruited more than 50 people by 1943, to work with potential female agents. Through contacts and personal meetings, Osipova gets to know and attracts to voluntary cooperation the ideal candidate for the operation from the point of view of awareness and involvement - Elena Mazanik, who worked as a servant in the house where Wilhelm Kube lived. but this is a fact: Osipova delivered a mine with a special chemical fuse, which, after damage to the ampoule, turns into a clockwork, for Elena Mazanik in a small basket of berries, ”said military historian Boris Savchenko in an interview with Zvezda TV channel. On June 22, 1943, exactly two years after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, at 00:40 the deed was done: tired after a long day, Wilhelm Kube went to sleep in a bed, under which Elena Mazanik left an army mine wrapped in rags.
It is noteworthy that the entire evening preceding the laying of the device, Elena Mazanik kept a special ammunition with her, simply fastening it on her stomach and hiding it under her apron. Historians note that the elimination of the Gauleiter of Belarus was in the hands of almost everyone: party members in Berlin, the SS leadership and subordinates - no one had warm feelings for Wilhelm Kuba. Most of those with whom Cuba was in contact or communicated considered him an arrogant upstart and a pathological flayer who inexplicably took a high post. Internal disagreements between Cuba and the SS played into the hands of Soviet counterintelligence officers - the deed was done, and the desired effect was achieved. For a unique operation both at the planning stage and at the stage of implementation, Elena Mazanik and Maria Osipova, evacuated to Moscow immediately after the laying of the device, were presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and went down in the history of special services as the most valuable female intelligence officers.

September 22 marks the 70th anniversary of the operation of Belarusian partisans to eliminate the Gauleiter of Belarus V. Kube. This largest operation behind enemy lines entered the annals of intelligence and was reflected in many films.

"The Clock Stopped at Midnight" (1958)

"Ruins Are Shooting" (1970), TV movie

Soviet films in which the official Soviet interpretation of events is presented.

In 2012, the series premiered "Hunting the Gauleiter". For a viewer who is accustomed to the fact that Gauleiter Kube is an executioner, and partisans are heroes, the Belarusian-Russian TV series "Gauleiter Hunt" is a real shock.

The episode with E. Mazanik is in the documentary series "Saboteurs"(2013) 3 series. Historical reconstruction of events based on documentary sources.

In the TV series "Military Intelligence First Strike" Film 3. "Economic Strike" (2013)

events from Belarus moved to Ukraine. Something from the category of military fantasy, worse than The Hunt for the Gauleiter.

IMHO the most objective on this topic is a documentary by Leonid Mlechin

"Night Elimination"

HUNT FOR THE GAULEITTER: REAL FACTS AND ARTISTIC FIction

"TVNZ"

Hunt for Gauleiter": Anastasia Zavorotnyuk joined the partisans

Then the whole country followed the fate of the desperate partisan who killed the head of the occupation administration in Belarus, Wilhelm Kube, in 1943. But times have changed. And in the look at the well-known history, other colors appeared. This was the reason for the filming of an 8-episode television film, which will be shown by Inter next week.

This is not a remake at all, but a new story, - director Oleg Bazilov told reporters. - The war drama of 1954 was only a source of inspiration for writing the script. We added a few things from ourselves to better reveal the characters. We even changed the names of the characters so that the viewer would not try to judge us by what is written in the documents. For me, this story is interesting because it can give rise to disputes in the audience: who is right, who is wrong. The more disputes there are, the better I have fulfilled my task.

The plot of the war film directed by Oleg Bazilov intertwines a historical novel, a military-psychological drama and love lines against the backdrop of the struggle of the partisan underground against the fascist occupation in Belarus. In the occupation Minsk, Elena Mazanik (her friends called her Galina, under this name she was known to both the Germans and partisans) got a job as a cleaner in one of the German military units, then worked as a waitress in a kitchen factory and in a casino for German officers. In early June 1943, she was hired in a three-story mansion on the street. Theaterstrasse, 27, where the General Commissioner of Belarus Wilhelm Kube lived with his family. Mazanik and planted a mine in the Gauleiter's bed...

The main female role was played by the famous Russian actress Anastasia Zavorotnyuk. The actress does not hide the fact that this work is very expensive for her:

In fact, I have wanted to play this woman for a very long time. And I've been hunting for this script for two years. When I read it, I just fell ill with the role. I realized that no one will play her like me. There are no good characters and no bad ones. Excluding, of course, the very fact of the existence of fascism. After all, she accomplishes a feat not because she loved her Motherland, was torn for Stalin ...

It turns out that filmmakers came up with their own beautiful version:

We have a love triangle, and the main character lays a mine not for ideological reasons, but because of love. There is a man between two women, for the sake of him the main character decides on such an act, - the creators of the picture say.

Hunting in Cuba

One of the most mysterious and at the same time well-known episodes on the “invisible front” of the 2nd World War is the liquidation of the Gauleiter of Belarus Wilhelm Kube on September 22, 1943. Recently, the series “Hunting for the Gauleiter” was filmed about this, but too free interpretation of historical events prompted us to turn to real facts.

Let's start with the identity of Cuba. In the film, he has the surname Kraube and positions himself as an old party ally of Hitler, in contrast to the chief SS officer Gottberg, who joined "our cause" only after 1933. In fact, Kube was extremely right (Hitler was formally left), he was in the German National People's Party (NNPP) and even headed its youth organization - Bismarck Youth. Then he ended up in another right-wing party - the German People's Freedom Party (NNPS), from which he was elected to the Reichstag, and only in 1928 he defected to the NSDAP, when Hitler's shares began to grow. After the Nazis came to power, Kube became chief president of the province of Brandenburg, and from 1936 Gauleiter of Kurmark. However, in 1936, Cuba's career almost came to an end - he was exposed as a slanderer. He stated that Martin Bormann's father-in-law was married to a Jewish woman. As a result, Cuba lost all his posts. But with the beginning of the Russian campaign, Hitler began to feel a shortage of personnel, Cuba was rehabilitated, and on July 17, 1941, he was appointed Gauleiter of Belarus (the general district of Weisrutenia).

From the very first days of his reign, Cuba began the Holocaust at his new post. In a report to the Reichskommissar Ostland Lohse dated July 31, 1942, he wrote: “In exclusively businesslike cooperation with SS Brigadeführer Zenner and especially the head of the SD, SS Obersturmbannführer Strauch, in the last ten weeks we liquidated 55 thousand Jews in Belarus. In the Minsk region, Jewry has been completely exterminated, without causing any damage to the labor force. In the predominantly Polish Lida district, 16,000 Jews were exterminated, and in Slonim, 8,000 Jews.

In the film, on the contrary, Kraube is shown as relatively humane, as if he opposed the SS in the senseless and bloody purges of the Jewish population of Minsk. There was a confrontation between him and Gottberg, they wrote denunciations against each other to Berlin. One way or another, but in Moscow it was decided to liquidate Cuba, at the same time 12 sabotage groups learned the task of liquidating it. A hunt began for Cuba, which resulted in a whole series of assassination attempts. So, on July 22, 1943, an explosive device was planted in one of the theaters in Minsk. As a result of the attack, 70 German soldiers and officers were killed and 110 wounded. However, Kube left the theater a few minutes before the explosion and remained alive.

On September 6, a large banquet was scheduled in Minsk with the participation of Cuba, which the partisans learned about. The direct executors of the action were Kapitolina Gulyeva and Ulyana Kozlova. The girls worked as waitresses in the canteen of the SD, which was located in the former building of the Faculty of History and Philology of Minsk University. This is where the banquet was to take place. On the night of September 6, Gulyeva and Kozlova were given 15 kg of tol and a mine with a clockwork. All this the girls laid in a tub with a palm tree, standing in the dining room. As planned, the explosion occurred on the evening of September 6, in the midst of the celebration. As a result, 16 officers were killed and 32 were wounded, but Cuba himself did not appear at the banquet.

A little later, another underground group organized an explosion in the officers' restaurant-casino on Sovetskaya Street, where, according to some reports, Cuba could appear. Like the last time, the performer of the action was a woman - an underground worker Raisa Volchek, who worked as a waitress in a restaurant. She planted a mine in the staff wardrobe in the main hall. As a result of the explosion, according to some sources, 22, according to others - 36 high-ranking occupiers, but Cuba again was not among them. Here is a very important point. Each such attempt, and indeed any military operation of the partisans, caused a fierce reaction from the SS men - they killed hostages, carried out bloody purges in the Jewish ghetto, by the way, one of the largest in Europe, about 100 thousand people lived in it.

Despite repeated attempts by the NKVD to organize the murder of Cuba, military intelligence officers managed to eliminate Cuba - the fighters of the GRU special detachment "Dima", commanded by David Keimakh (according to the film Kleiman).

Elena Mazanik became the direct executor of the action of retribution (close people and acquaintances called her Galina - in the film Galina Pomazan, Anastasia Zavorotnyuk played her role). She was born on April 4, 1914 in the Minsk region in a peasant family. In 1928, after graduating from a rural school, she moved to Minsk. She was a housekeeper, cleaner, waitress in the dining room of the Council of People's Commissars of Belarus. Later she married an employee of the NKVD and in 1938 she went to work in the canteen of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Belarus. At the beginning of the war, Mazanik's husband was evacuated along with other NKVD workers, but she herself was unable to leave Belarus, and the woman remained in Minsk. In order not to die of hunger, at first she worked as a laundress in German military units, and in December 1941 she managed to get a job as a kitchen worker in a casino at the General Commissariat. In the film, this is not a casino, but a cabaret, but for some reason it is also called a “casino”, apparently mixed up. At the same time, Mazanik was cleaning the apartment of adjutant Cuba Vilenshtein, who recommended her to his boss as a maid. Before hiring, Mazanik took an oath of allegiance to the Reich and the Fuhrer, and also undertook to inform the German authorities about any manifestations of anti-German sentiment and not to disclose what she learns in the service.

In fact, in Soviet times, they already shot a film about the assassination attempt on Cuba. It is called "The clock stopped at midnight", meaning a fuse with a clockwork. But there were no clocks. Despite the fact that some watches are in the same exposition in the museum with a real Mazanik handbag and a model of a mine. The Hunt for the Gauleiter describes how this mine works. English-made, the mine had a special chemical fuse, when launched, acid pours out inside and after a long period of time, 24 hours, apparently corrodes the partition and the fuse works. Even here, however, there is ambiguity. According to other sources, the mine still had a mechanical fuse, its design allows for this. But not hourly.

The wife of an NKVD officer, who worked in the Kube mansion, attracted the attention of sabotage groups operating in Minsk. Maria Osipova managed to convince Galina to take part in the liquidation of Cuba (in the film, Maria Arkhipova - her role is played by Maria Mashkova). She was born on December 27, 1908 in the Vitebsk region in a working class family. At the age of 20, she joined the party, graduated from the Minsk Law Institute, after which she was appointed a member of the Supreme Court of Belarus. When the war began, Osipova, along with other members of the party, was left in Minsk to organize the underground.

Mazanik was very afraid to make contact with Osipova. Knowing that the SD had an extensive network of agents among the local population, she feared provocation from the German secret services. This is a key dramatic moment in the film. The fact is that Galina Pomazan is depicted as an absolutely apolitical woman who, in principle, does not care who she works for, as long as she gets paid. The irony of fate brings her to her husband Arkhipova, who escaped from captivity and hid in Minsk, working as a projectionist in an officer's club. A love triangle arose, and on this basis, hostility Anointed and Arkhipova. Although a certain Nikolai Furs, a cinema driver, also took part in the real operation.

The operation was originally planned to be carried out with the help of poison, but nevertheless they decided to eliminate Cuba with a directional mine. It was decided to put her in Cuba's bed, under the mattress. Mazanik managed to carry a mine with a pre-cocked fuse, set it in the right place and safely leave the mansion. On the night of September 22, 1943, 20 minutes after Kube went to bed, there was an explosion. In the “Conclusion of a special commission on the attempt on the life of the General Commissar of Cuba”, the consequences of the explosion are described as follows: “On the night of September 22, 1943, at 0.40, a mine exploded in the bedroom of the General Commissar and Gauleiter Wilhelm Kube, the left side of the chest was torn out of Cuba and left arm torn off. The wounds are fatal. His corpse, in a half-burned state, was removed from the bedroom by the security guards and officials of the General Commissariat raised on alarm. His wife, Anita Kube, who was eight months pregnant, was lying next to him, was not injured and escaped with a nervous shock. His three children, who slept in another room separated from the bedroom by a bathroom, were also unharmed."

The search for saboteurs was immediately launched. By order of SS-Obergruppenführer Kurt von Gottberg, the city quarter where Mazanik lived was cordoned off, and Belarusian Khivs seized 300 men, women and children and shot them. It was retribution for the liquidation of Cuba. The shooting was announced publicly. According to other sources, another 2,000 people were shot in the Jewish ghetto.

It should be noted that in the Soviet official history the operation was presented as a centrally planned action. In fact, everything was very complex and difficult, depending on the case. The feedback and controllability of agents was very poorly established. So, the head of the special department of the partisan detachments of the Vitebsk region, the captain of the NKVD Yurin, sent a report to his superiors, in which he claimed that the murder of the Gauleiter was carried out by his people. He was immediately summoned to Moscow, arrested and sentenced to 6 years in the camps for fraud. There is also a version that Major Kazantsev's group liquidated Cuba, and Lev Lieberman, who worked as a laborer in the Cuba mansion, planted a mine. Allegedly, there is a report on the operation in the archives.

But one way or another, the liquidation of Cuba caused a huge resonance. Already on the day of the assassination, TASS, through its Geneva branch, spread the message to the whole world about a successful terrorist attack against Cuba, however, without specifying who carried it out.

The next day, on September 23, an article by Ilya Ehrenburg was published in Krasnaya Zvezda, where there were such words: “He thought to live in this fabulous country for many, many more years. But Belarusians thought differently. Berlin cries out: "Who killed Mr. General Commissar?" The people killed him, and our entire Motherland glorifies the unknown avenger.”

The funeral ceremony for Kube began on September 25 in Minsk. The collaborationist Belarusian Gazeta came out on that day with a mournful message signed by Gottberg: “As a result of the heinous attempt of vile Jewish-Bolshevik murderers, General Commissar Gauleiter Kube fell victim on the night of September 21-22, 1943 ... we honor his memory.” Hitler posthumously awarded Cuba the Knight's Cross with Swords. The coffin with the body of Kube was transported on a gun carriage through the streets of Minsk, and then loaded onto a plane and sent to Berlin.

Maria Osipova and Galina Mazanik were also taken by plane to Moscow, where on October 29, 1943, in Merkulov's office, they were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. In the film, Arkhipova considers the assignment of such a high Anointed to be undeserved, believing that Anointed is just a Khiva and agreed to carry out a terrorist attack only under pressure and threats, as a result of her, Arkhipova's operational processing. Anointed, by the way, signed the agency card in the SD. In addition, Arkhipova's husband died while fleeing, for which she also blamed Pomazan.

But Stalin had already decided to make a loud propaganda action out of the elimination of Cuba, and to photograph the female heroines and place them on the front pages of newspapers. Then they traveled around the country with performances.
After the war, Osipova was again appointed a member of the Supreme Court of the BSSR. Mazanik graduated from the Higher Republican Party School under the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) and the Minsk Pedagogical Institute, worked as deputy director of the library of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

An epic scene was played in the series finale. In 1970, Mazanik and Osipova spoke at the congress of the Komsomol of Belarus in Minsk, although it was known that they had hated each other since the war and the organizers of such meetings tried not to overlap. Women right on the stage in front of the Komsomol put up a fight. The role of Mazanik in adulthood is played by Lyudmila Chursina, and the role of Maria Osipova is played by Larisa Luzhina. The episode itself is historical, took place in real life.

Until now, hot debates have not subsided as to how necessary the liquidation of the Gauleiter was. After all, after this demonstration action, the Germans shot thousands of people.

From the testimony at the trial in the case of the atrocities committed by the Nazi invaders in Belarus, the defendant Eberhard Herf, Major General of Police and SS Brigandeführer:
"On the night of Kube's murder, I was summoned to Gothenberg, who told me that he was taking over the functions of the general commissar, about which he radioed Himmler that for the life of Kube he would ruthlessly deal with the Russian population, who was also there, the head of the SS and police, Galterman, officers The SD and I were ordered to raid and shoot mercilessly ... In these raids, 2,000 people were captured and shot, and a much larger number were imprisoned in a concentration camp.

At the same trial, some of the criminals tried to justify themselves: they say, if the partisans had not killed Kube, then we would not have killed 2,000 Minskers in a few days. To this, the prosecutor asked a reasonable question:
- Well, what about Operation Magic Flute, during which 52,000 Minskers were arrested and most of them were destroyed. After all, you spent it before the murder of Kube. And what about the plan of Dr. Wetzel, head of the colonization department of the first political department for the affairs of the occupied eastern regions, drawn up before the war and which you began to implement from the first day of the war?
Silence was the answer."

Based on the book by I. Damaskin "Spy and spies"