Moscow, Mysl Publishing House, 1969, 292 p. The print run is 6,500. Price 1 rub. 5 kopecks.

The book under review was written by A. Blank, a former political worker of the Red Army, who was directly involved in the Free Germany movement, and a member of this movement B. Levelem. B. Levelem had previously published a number of articles on this topic and, in 1960, defended his PhD thesis in Moscow on "The Free Germany Movement and its development". role in the unfolding of the anti-fascist struggle of the German people (1943-1945)". A. Blank wrote two books and an article devoted to the activities of the National Committee "Free Germany". The authors used materials from the archives of the USSR and the GDR, memoirs, the press, leaflets, literature on the problems of the anti-fascist struggle of the German people during the Nazi dictatorship, as well as personal memoirs. In Marxist literature, this work is the first attempt at a generalizing study of the activities of the Free Germany movement, its significance for the future progressive, democratic development of the German nation. This is the novelty and significance of the book for understanding the essence of the anti-fascist struggle of German patriots-internationalists.

The authors show how the German Communists rallied around them anti-fascists from among workers, peasants, intellectuals and clergy, people of various political views, including former members of the Nazi Party, German prisoners of war who were in the Soviet Union. The struggle of the German anti-fascists, the book notes, was difficult and required great sacrifices. It became especially difficult with the outbreak of the Second World War, when a wave of war hysteria swept through the general population. After the perfidious attack of the Nazis on the USSR, the authors write, on June 21, 1941, the Central Committee of the KKE addressed a proclamation to the German people, which emphasized that "the victory of the Red Army and the oppressed peoples fighting for their national freedom will also be the victory of the German people" (p.34).

The authors trace how German Communists and anti-fascists joined the struggle against the common enemy under the militant slogans of the Central Committee of the KKE, and how the National Committee for Free Germany (NCSG) was formed at a conference in Krasnogorsk near Moscow in July 1943. The book describes the composition of this committee. Its president was the famous German communist poet "E. A.". Weinert, and the members - V. Pik, V. Ulbricht, V. Florin, trade unionists, former deputies of the Reichstag, writers F. Wolf, I. Becher, V. Bredel, representatives of POW soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers. The authors analyze the goals and objectives of the NKSG set out in its manifesto, the content of the newspaper "Free Germany" published by the decision of the NKSG and the regular broadcasts of the radio station of the same name, the activities of the "Union of German Officers"created in the USSR on the platform of the NKSG in September 1943.

Using concrete examples, the book highlights the activities of German anti-fascist groups headed by NCSG commissioners on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. The authors describe in detail how the campaign work was conducted among young people.

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soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht on the front line with the help of loudspeaker installations, as well as groups of anti-fascists sent to Hitler's units and formations on the instructions of the NKSG. The authors paid much attention to the work of the NKSG commissioners with prisoners of war and its results in various sectors of the front in 1944-1945.

The pages of books devoted to the activities of" Free Germany "in some capitalist countries, as well as in Nazi Germany itself, are read with interest. The authors convincingly describe the activities of German patriots in the autumn of 1944-spring of 1945, when special combat groups and detachments of "Free Germany" were sent to the rear of the Nazis and prepared there to disrupt a number of their activities to destroy enterprises, power plants, bridges and other important objects, operated as part of Polish partisan detachments and Soviet troops, and after the surrender of the Nazis they worked to create democratic government bodies. The authors also consider the question of why, after the defeat of the Hitler regime and the beginning of the activities of democratic anti-fascist parties in November 1945, there was no need for the continued existence of the NKSG, the "Union of German Officers "and the newspaper"Free Germany".

The book by A. Blank and B. Levell not only recreates the history of the Free Germany movement, but also contains a reasoned criticism of reactionary bourgeois historiography, which distorts the history of the anti-fascist struggle of the best representatives of the German people. This is its indisputable advantage.

Assessing the historical significance of the Free Germany movement, A. Blank and B. Level conclude that it was a powerful factor in uniting all democratic forces in Germany and laid the foundation for the first socialist state of workers and peasants in its history. This thesis would sound more convincing if it were confirmed in the book by the fate of a larger number of people who took the path of fighting fascism during the war and are now actively involved in the construction of socialism in the GDR. I would like to mention one more point. If the activities of the representatives and groups of the Free Germany movement at the front are covered in close connection with the heroic struggle of the Soviet people, then in chapter IV, which deals with the activities of the NKSG in Hitler's Germany, such connections are not reflected. Meanwhile, the anti-Fascist groups associated with the German Communists in Hitler's Reich also included Soviet citizens who were prisoners of war and taken away for forced labor. So, for example, it was during the rescue of the monument to V. I. Lenin in Eisleben. For some reason, the authors did not mention the participation of Soviet people in this international act.

In general, the work of A. Blank and B. Level is a successful attempt not only to study the history of the "Free Germany" movement, but also the creative cooperation of historians of the USSR and the GDR. The book evokes a sense of legitimate pride for the Soviet Union, which played a major role in the victory over fascism, for the German Communists, who, relying on the international assistance of the USSR and the international communist movement, waged a stubborn heroic struggle against Nazism.

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