# Two prisoners of war. A historical note

de Overwood Henry

MMMDCLXXI. Two prisoners of war. A historical note. - June 21, 2025.

Two prisoners of war. A historical note.


Vladimir Vasilievich felt his direct and indirect involvement in the events of the Second World War.


He told the following about the first day of the Great Patriotic War (June 22, 1941).


They - he and his mother, Zalesskaya Jozefa Adamovna - went to an informal second-hand different things market (the so-called " tolkuchka ") early in the morning on June 22, 1941. The 'tolkuchka' (market), if I remember correctly, was located somewhere in the area of the modern Sports Palace.


A bicycle was bought for Vladimir Vasilievich, who was 11 years old at the time.


The mood was good, but when Vladimir Vasilievich returned home, he learned that Molotov had performed with a speech and that the war with the Germany had begun.


Vladimir Vasilievich asked his father, Vasily Alexandrovich Zalessky, who fought in the First World War: "What will happen? Will we win?" "Are we able to win?".


Vasily Alexandrovich replied to him: "Of course, we will win. But it will be very difficult to win."


Then there were the events of November 20, 1941. Later, a life in the evacuation. Even later, there was a return to Rostov-on-Don (there were also "funny" moments during this return).


Feeling himself directly and indirectly involved in the events of the war, Vladimir Vasilievich, when it was possible, communicated with the participants of the war and questioned them.


After studying at the college [technicum, technical school] of the fishing industry, or perhaps because of his natural inclination, he bought a motorboat (of individual use - a model for ordinary Soviet citizens) and spent his summers on small trips along the Don River.


Motorboats were stored in collective boat parking lots (bases).


These boat parking lots were a kind of men's clubs, where people from the "middle layer " communicated with each other in the fresh air, - those people, who had the ability to control a motor boat, to repair the engine (when it broke down), and, in general those who had a tendency to not quite standard activities and to interact with a machinery - technical devices. The little "houses" of motor boat owners - it were usually containers (one or two) - "retired" ("decommissioned") huge (industrial) containers for transporting especially large goods (in them an adult could stand at full height).


Especially often, year-round, Vladimir Vasilievich visited the boat parking lot after the forced completion (at the assistance of the "people's control" ['narodny control'] and other patriotic bodies) of his (scientific and technical) activities for the benefit of the native USSR Navy .


Apparently, there, at the boat parking lot (in the second half of the 80s) he heard a story that he briefly mentioned to (for) me, two or three times.


The narrator was a participant in the war (I think Vladimir Vasilievich mentioned for me a narrator's last name, first name and patronymic, but I missed it altogether).


The story was about two wounded people traveling around Japan on some kind of wagons (carts).


Now I am trying to mentally reconstruct those events, and I assume that it was the period after the surrender of Japan in 1945, but before the complete occupation of Japan and before the establishment of a normal post-war situation.


They were traveling by whatever means were possible, they were walking and riding.


Among these masses of people, there were two wounded men - apparently, these wounded were dressed in the uniform of the US Army, or maybe in civilian clothes. Naturally, they looked different from the Japanese.


But these were not Americans (US citizens), but representatives of the Soviet armed forces.


On the instructions of the command, they were sent to Japan to collect and to transmit up-to-date information about the situation in Japan. (The name of a specific Japanese island sounded while telling - Japan is located on islands - but I missed this name off (past) my memory).


My guess: it was important for the Soviet command to know about the presence or absence of the resistance from the population, and, in general, about the common mood, about the general situation.


The narrator, who communicated with Vladimir Vasilievich, was the eldest in this pair. The narrator, seemed, to know some foreign language (probably English).


The second participant of the "journey" along the roads of Japan (for informational purposes) did not know any language other than Russian. This circumstance, this detail particularly surprised Vladimir Vasilievich.


He expressed this surprise both when mentioning this story to me, and (as I understand it) during a conversation with a participant in the "journey" on the roads of Japan.


The senior member of the intelligence pair replied that he was communicating (during travelling) - if necessary - as he could; the second participant in the "travel" was pretending to be deaf and dumb (as if he was a victim of the bombing). Apparently, these two (exes?) American prisoners of war didn't meet any particularly hostile attitude, hostility from side of other persons, from the Japanese ( who were moving along the post-war roads).


I was indifferent to Vladimir Vasilievich's references to an unusual historical episode, even I was listening with some skepticism (although I did not express this skepticism to him). I didn't specifically memorize anything, wasn't interested in anything, didn't ask any additional, clarifying questions. I just listened in silence, indifferently.


Now, remembering these mentions by Vladimir Vasilievich, I think: How bizarre History is! The founder of one of the scientific and technical directions (in the interests of the Soviet Navy) [from one side] and the man capable of carrying out reconnaissance missions of particular complexity in situations of extreme danger [from other side], - they were completing their active lives talking "over a glasses of tea" in the fresh air at a boat parking lot (on the left bank of the Don River), in a kind of Soviet "the men's club."


June 21, 2025 11:52 (11:52 a.m.)


Translation from Russian into English: June 21, 2025 16:27

Владимир Владимирович Залесский ' Два военнопленных. Историческая заметка. '.


{3700. Два военнопленных. Историческая заметка. - 21 июня 2025 г.

MMMDCLXXI. Two prisoners of war. A historical note. - June 21, 2025.


Vladimir Zalessky Internet-bibliotheca. Интернет-библиотека Владимира Залесского}


[MCCСLXXVI. Vladimir Vasilievich, the Holmes method and a sailor in a train. The story. - April 8, 2020.

MCCСLXXXV. Vladimir Vasilievich and the first occupation of Rostov-on-Don (in November 1941). The story. - April 9, 2020.

MCCСLXXXVI. Vladimir Vasilievich and the Georgian city of Gori. The story. - April 9, 2020.

MCCСLXXXVII. Vladimir Vasilievich in Kazakhstan. The story. - April 10, 2020.

MDCXLIX. Vladimir Vasilievich and Vuchetich. A historical note. - August 16, 2020.

MMXVIII. Vladimir Vasilievich and the hunt (for scientific achievements). A story. - February 18, 2021.

MMXXV. Vladimir Vasilievich and the financing of defense from the family budget. A story. - February 21, 2021.

MMLXXXVI. A card game, a shoulder straps, a one kopeck of the State Bank. A story. - March 26, 2021.

MMСCXVII. Vladimir Vasilievich, the boxer and the participant in controlled conflicts. A story. - June 16, 2021.

MMDCIV. Vladimir Vasilievich talks about visiting the NKVD in 1937. A story. - December 20, 2021.

MMDCCXCIV. Vladimir Vasilievich and an employee of SMERSH (in connection of the joint safeguard of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant). A story. - February 25, 2022.

MMDCCCXXXVII. Vasily Alexandrovich writes a certificate for the NKVD. Archive essay. - March 22, 2022.

MMDCCCXLV. There was a battle in a history. Vladimir Vasilievich makes an attempt to save the history of the defense of Rostov-on-Don in November 1941. An archival essay. - March 25, 2022.

MMDCCCXLVIII. Vladimir Vasilievich writes a letter to the patriot of the Soviet Motherland, comrade Vlasov A.V. An archival essay. - March 27, 2022.

MMDCCCLII. A happiness and a luck of the defender of Rostov-on-Don (in November 1941), 56 Army commander Remezov. A historical essay. - March 29, 2022.

MMDCCCLXXIX. Vladimir Vasilievich writes to the newspaper a story about the capture of Field Marshal Paulus. An archival essay. - April 12, 2022.

MMDCCCLXXXIV. Vasily Alexandrovich writes the autobiography. An archival essay. - April 14, 2022.

MMDCCCLXXXVI. Vasily Alexandrovich studies in the North Caucasus State University, Vladimir Vasilievich writes a book about piezoelectrics. An archival essay. - April 15, 2022.].

MMCMVI. Vladimir Vasilievich, out of patriotic motives, works in favour of the Soviet Motherland. (The employment book and the party card of a member of the CPSU). An archival essay. - April 24, 2022.

MMCMVII. Vasily Alexandrovich serves in the army (before and after October 1917 - until 1926). An archival essay. - April 25, 2022.

MMCMIX. Vladimir Vasilievich, navigator. An archival essay. - April 26, 2022.

MMCMXVI. Comrades in arms fought on Rostov-Gora on November 20, 1941. The letter by Leonid Starodubtsev dated June 13, 1989. An archival essay. - April 29, 2022.

MMCMXVIII. Two photographs of participants in the battle on Rostov-Gora on November 20, 1941. An archival note. - April 29, 2022.

MMCMXIX. The list of 7 photos. A collection of photographs "More than 45 years - after the battle on Rostov-Gora on November 20, 1941". An archival essay. - April 30, 2022.

MMCMXX. The collection of letters and postcards "After 48 years: Postal documents of the participants of the battle of November 20, 1941 - the fight on Rostov-Gora". An archival essay. - April 30, 2022.

MMCMXXII. In honor of Victory Day. The exhibition of photographs and postal documents of participants in the battle in Rostov-on-Don on November 20, 1941. A culturological essay. - May 1, 2022.

MMMCL. Vladimir Vasilievich and his friends in the yard - "guys from our yard." A memoir sketch. - September 19, 2022.

MMMCCVII. The NPI diploma during a visit to the Military-Industrial Commission. An app-antiquarian story. - November 5, 2022.

MMMCCVIII. A Certificate for the right to wear a badge for graduates of the university. An antiquarian story. - November 6, 2022.

MMMCCCXXXII. The patriots of the Soviet Motherland show a care of the profitable scientific business for the benefit of the Soviet Navy. An archive essay. - August 1, 2023.

MMMCCCXXXVIII. A sociological surveys by Vladimir Vasilievich. A story. - August 9, 2023.

MMMDLXI. Vladimir Vasilievich and his friends of youth. Money, children, nets. A memoir sketch. - October 30, 2024.

MMMDLXXXI. A bottle of milk and an important point on the air (and sea-) bridge towards the Global South. A humorous socio-psychological and culturological story. - December 7, 2024.

MMMDXCVII. Troubadours, minstrels, duelists and slippery puddles of sunflower oil spilled in modern urban markets. An essay on the psychology of the interaction of the opposite sexes. - January 7, 2025.

MMMDCV. Financial well-being of creative personalities (using the example of Vladimir Vysotsky). A culturologial essay. - January 21, 2025.

MMMDLXXXVI. About the Mikoyans - another radio program about "Russial dynasties". Plus two words about Sergei Yesenin and Leon Trotsky. A culturological essay. - December 16, 2024.].