In 1911, the boy, at the age of 7, began his working career, going with his father to the glass factory of the Golubev merchants in the district center of Sudogda. The Smirnovs lived there for more than 4 years. Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, Efim Smirnov, already grown up and physically strong beyond his years, went to work in an artel of loaders at the Esino station of the Murom Railway, where products from two glass factories - Nechaevsky and Voznesensky - were loaded from warehouses into freight cars. In addition, from Esino to Ozerki there were only 15 miles - compared to Sudogda, it was almost close to home.
After the outbreak of the Civil War, fate brought the Smirnov family to Siberia. In 1923, 19-year-old Efim Smirnov was elected chairman of the village council in the village of Stepanovo on the border with Kazakhstan. Obviously, even then his extraordinary abilities as a leader and organizer were evident. However, the young man really wanted to study, and in the mid-1920s he became a student at the Omsk Workers' Faculty. From there, in 1928, he was sent to Leningrad as a student at the Military Medical Academy.
In 1932, after graduating from the Academy, military doctor Smirnov began serving as a junior doctor in a rifle regiment, and then as a senior doctor in a rifle battalion and an experimental training artillery regiment. His military career developed rapidly - in 1938 he graduated from the Frunze Academy in Moscow, having been appointed to the post of head of the sanitary department of the Leningrad Military District.
And in 1939, the 35-year-old military doctor headed the Sanitary Department of the Red Army. Based on the established scientific medical council, E.I. Smirnov, in his new post, improved the organizational, tactical, scientific and methodological foundations of providing medical care in the conditions of a large-scale war, which he considered inevitable.
With the active participation of the new chief, the corresponding military medical doctrine was developed, advanced forms of medical support for combat operations were sought and tested in practice. The proven effective system of staged treatment of the wounded and sick, one of the creators of which was General Smirnov, allows experts to classify Efim Ivanovich as the talented successor and continuer of the work of the great army doctor Nikolai Pirogov. Up to 72% of the wounded and over 90% of those who fell ill at the front returned to duty thanks to the timely assistance of doctors. According to historians, behind these large-scale figures is a real front-line feat of Smirnov and the service he led during the most difficult war years. Countless medical battalions and hospitals, ambulance trains and cars, an entire army of military doctors - from orderlies and nurses to venerable professors - acted during the hard times of war under the clear and competent leadership of General Smirnov.
In 1946-1947, Colonel General of the Medical Service Efim Ivanovich Smirnov (he received this title back in 1944) headed the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Armed Forces, and then was appointed to the post of Minister of Health of the USSR. Now he had to establish the same exemplary order in civilian medicine as in military medicine. Our fellow countryman completed the task assigned to him personally by Stalin in full.
Under Khrushchev, Smirnov headed one of the directorates of the General Staff, and then the Main Military Medical Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense. In 1960-1985, the general headed one of the secret departments of the Ministry of Defense, and finally retired only in 1987 at the age of 84.
For his long service, E. I. Smirnov was awarded many awards: the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, 6 Orders of Lenin, Orders of Kutuzov, 1st degree, Order of the October Revolution, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, 3 Orders of the Red Banner, 2 Orders of the Red Star and many medals, and also several foreign insignia. The general was elected an honorary member of the Medical Society of Canada and Great Britain and the Society of Military Physicians of the United States.
E.I. Smirnov died in 1989 in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. Eight years later, his wife Maria Ivanovna found her final resting place there. On the general’s massive granite tombstone, only his last name, first name, patronymic and dates of life are engraved. Nothing is said about high ranks and orders.
The village of Ozerki, the small homeland of the general and academician, has not existed for about 30 years. Since the 1920s, it was part of the Kovrovsky district. In the 1970s, Ozerki fell into the category of “unpromising”. Today, on the site of the village, only an overgrown field remains, surrounded by impassable forests on the border of the Kovrovsky and Sudogodsky districts. Although military doctors never had marshals, historians and doctors unofficially long ago awarded Efim Ivanovich Smirnov the honorary title of marshal of military medicine - based on his merits, which are now recognized not only in our country, but throughout the world.
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Field Briefing Notes
UNTSO Ismail Control Center
(on the arrival of the first group of Soviet UN military observers in Ismailia)
New Soviet United Nations Military Observers (UNMOs)
The following are the greetings of the OIC (Officer-in-Charge) to the 6 new soviet UNMOs arriving in ICC (Ismailia Control Center) today: "First of all, I have great pleasure to welcome you here as our new colleagues. For the first time in ICC that we have the Soviet UNMOs, one of the 5 Big Powers permanent members of the Security Council. I hope you all will witness the final settlement of peace in the Middle East. Awaiting this day to come, you will have to perform a hard duty in reporting to the Security Council the situation, especially all kinds of breach of ceasefire along the Suez land. I wish you all a pleasant stay in ICC and I assure you that during your duty here, you will meet a lot of friends and of course you will discover among other nationalities the same good spirit and cooperation. Once again I welcome you and all the best in our outstation."
Briefing of new Soviet UNMOs. The 6 new Soviet UNMOs are briefed in ICC today concerning the organization of ICC, general situation along the Suez land, duty of ICC patrols. They are introduced to SARELO (Senior Arab Republic of Egypt Liaison Officer) and made general tour in ICC area. Later, they attended the radio procedure lesson and aircraft identification course, and attended Daily briefing in the evening.
Late October night 1973. Phone call. The excited voice of the operational duty officer. Comrade Colonel. You are urgently called to division headquarters! When the deputy commander of a formation is alerted in the dead of night, it means the matter is serious...
The division commander clarified the situation. He said that he had received orders from the district headquarters to immediately form a group of officers to carry out an important government assignment. I was assigned to lead this group. Time was running out. We must be in Moscow at seven in the morning. Before departure, it was necessary to decide on personnel and resolve a number of organizational issues.
Group Formation
The group was formed quickly. It included officers of the company and battalion levels. Twenty-five people in total. The solution to organizational issues mainly came down to handing over party cards, a quick medical examination and all kinds of vaccinations, since the first aid post was deployed right at the division headquarters. At seven in the morning we were already at the district headquarters. The first task is to urgently take a photo. I learned that the formation and dispatch of the group was controlled by the district military council, which was holding an emergency meeting at that time. I was only present for a few minutes. The commander of the Moscow Military District, Army General Vladimir Govorov, said that by decision of the military council I was approved as the commander of a special group of Soviet officers who would act as UN military observers in the Middle East. The briefing at the General Staff was conducted by Army General Nikolai Ogarkov, then still Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces. He brought me up to date with the latest events in the Middle East, noting that the peace that followed the end of the Arab-Israeli war in 1973 was quite fragile. He briefly spoke about the specifics of the military observer service, emphasizing that it was the first time that Soviet military personnel had to participate in UN peacekeeping operations, so our group had a special responsibility.
Problems appeared even before takeoff. It turned out that the passports were not ready. We had to paste the photos ourselves. The tight packs thrown into the planes, which turned out to be “gifts” for us from the clothing carriers, also caused bewilderment. They opened it, and there was uniforms for conscript personnel. Moreover, they “gifted” without trying on or adjusting. The bales then had to be returned to Moscow. And it’s not just that the uniform didn’t fit us in size: it’s impossible to wear woolen clothes in hot Egypt. We arrived in Cairo late in the evening.
First days in Egypt
The USSR Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt (ARE) Vinogradov greeted us warmly. He spoke in detail about the situation in this hot spot and the political situation in Egypt. But I understood that the main purpose of my night visit to the Soviet ambassador was not his lecture on the topic “The Arab World Today,” but something else. And I was not mistaken. It turned out that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt was waiting for me. Such close attention of senior Egyptian officials to the arrival of the Soviet military was not accidental. It was explained by another outbreak of tension in Arab-Israeli relations, threatening unpredictable consequences. In their settlement, much depended on the position of Moscow. The urgent arrival of our group in Cairo as military observers made it clear that the Kremlin will not allow further escalation of the conflict, that it advocates a peaceful resolution to the protracted confrontation between the parties. In this regard, the following detail is typical: the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt told us that, having learned about our arrival, “the president was wildly delighted,” and from now on we are personal guests. Of course, we did not come to Egypt to visit, but to act as part of the UN troops. But they were in no hurry to allow us to perform our duties as military observers. It took a long time to agree on some documents through the UN. In particular, it turned out that Moscow had played it safe, and our group turned out to be too large. The USSR required 36 people to participate in peacekeeping operations. We had to resolve the issues of recruiting the main group and sending comrades home. Serious attention was paid to getting to know the new region and the history of the country.
Joining UNTSO
On one of the November days, namely the 25th, a solemn ceremony took place to present us with blue berets and blue scarves - an indispensable attribute of the uniform of UN military personnel. Each of us also received a special certificate confirming our status as UN military observers. My ID number was “6492”. The day of the ceremony can be considered the initial date for the beginning of the participation of Soviet military personnel in UN peacekeeping operations. True, at the end of November and in the first days of December we studied new duties for ourselves, radio business, worked on maps, became acquainted with the military equipment and weapons of the warring parties, and improved our skills in driving cars. Soon, some of the officers left for Syria. The rest had to continue serving in Egypt.
It is worth noting that in accordance with the resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on October 22, 1973, as well as not without the efforts of the Soviet government, military operations in the Middle East were suspended. However, the warring parties, separated by a neutral zone (in some places its width reached 200 m), were ready to resume them at any moment. This 230 km long line was controlled by only eight patrols of military observers, which included representatives of the USSR.
First operations
I especially remember the first months of 1974. They turned out to be extremely difficult for us. We had to participate in a number of serious peacekeeping operations. One of them “Omega” was held from February 5 to March 31. Its goal was to search for the remains of military personnel who died during the recent October military conflict. The UN observers had the following tasks: meeting Israeli or Egyptian search teams at predetermined points and escorting them to the search site; ensuring negotiations between search teams and local commanders; ensuring the safety of searches; promoting business-like rather than adversarial relationships between search groups; on-site resolution of potential problems and conflicts.
During Omega, 173 search operations were carried out, each of which lasted several days. 183 dead Israeli soldiers and 321 Arabs were found dead. The operation was carried out in a situation close to combat. In February, a Kantara Center patrol was struck by a mine, seriously wounding two Argentine observers and killing an Israeli liaison officer. In March, four people from the Panama battalion of UNEF-2 peacekeeping forces were killed, and an Egyptian colonel was blown up by a mine.
Operation Alpha Line (determination of the border between the buffer zone and the zone of a limited number of Egyptian troops) was carried out in an equally difficult situation. For its participants, these were incredibly difficult tests, because they had to operate for almost a month in an area that was a continuous minefield. However, I cannot remember that the service of military observers took place in a calm and safe environment. I cannot help but say that the personnel of our group, having arrived in the Middle East, managed to rise to the occasion. My comrades were in no way inferior to the experienced “blue berets” from the peacekeeping battalions of other states.
Awarding the UN Medal “In the Service of Peace”
We not only served together, but were also friends and showed real internationalism, which was necessary to maintain peace. Acting under the auspices of the UN, we had the status of international officials, subordinate only to the military authorities of this largest and most authoritative organization. But at the same time, they did not lose touch with their native military department. In some ways it was effective, in others it was not. For example, we persistently asked to send us a new form. The request was fulfilled only six months later. But they did not lack instructions and guidance. Most of them were of a prohibitive nature. In Moscow they feared that, finding ourselves surrounded by a potential enemy, we would become “de-ideologized.”
We were regularly instructed to “not do this, that, that.” The seriousness of these instructions is evidenced by this fact. Participants in peacekeeping organizations, upon completion of a certain period of service, were awarded “In the Service of Peace” medals on behalf of the UN Secretary General. Together with military observers from a number of other countries, we, Soviet officers, received this award. It would seem that what is criminal in this? One should only be proud of such an award. But the first thing I heard were the words: “How dare you receive this medal without Moscow’s permission?!.” Moscow would really be outraged by our “misconduct”.
Having returned to my homeland, for a whole month I reported in detail, down to the smallest detail, to various military and party authorities for the activities of my group and why we could not refuse the foreign award. Having never found the “criminal,” I was awarded the domestic Order “For Service to the Motherland in the USSR Armed Forces,” 3rd degree. Today this is already a thing of the past. And I am proud that we took the first step towards this, twenty-five years ago, when, by the will of fate, we found ourselves in a “hot spot” on the planet.
(Recorded by Ekaterina Kryukova, Independent Military Review No. 41, 1998)
