MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/. During the war, in the North, deer were used as transport. They carried shells, food, wood and fuel, evacuated the injured, searched for crashed planes. TASS is telling about the deer transport and involvement of the Saami - the Kola Peninsula’s low-numbered indigenous people, who have lived with those animals for centuries.
The Red Army used deer for the first time in the Winter War (also known as the First Soviet-Finnish War, November 30, 1939 - March 13, 1940).
"My great grandfather - Ivan Maximovich Sobakin, born in 1898 - in October-November, 1941, when the Nazi bombing began, herded the deer trying to rescue them. The huge herd moved slowly to the south-east. Near Tuloma, they had to stop - waiting for the river ice to freeze hard enough. Only on November 9, 1941, the deer could cross the river and got close to the railway line near Loparskaya," Polina Kharybina said.
While that 130-day-long trip continued, the families already feared the herders were dead, but they returned home safely. In a few days, the men took guns and went to fight the enemy.
Deer units were formed since November, 1941. In papers, the soldiers were called "deer drivers." Instead of uniforms they wore traditional fur malitsas (national outfit).
Off-road skills and valuable silence
"Northern deer is a unique animal, living in the tundra, it is strong and hardy, it is not afraid of most severe weather conditions. It will go where no equipment can: across the tundra, without roads, through snow of a few meters deep," said Alexander Chapayenko of the Murmansk Arctic State University.
The deer transport proved its reliability when snow storms left roads at the front blocked for cars and even tractors.
Besides, deer are self-sufficient, they practically do not require any care.
"A deer wouldn’t get stuck in the snow, it can swim. Practically no feeding, it finds food itself. No watering. No shelters. Deer know how to get everything they may need," said Domna Khomuk, a resident of the Lovozero village - a Saami center.
The greatest advantage, which was very valuable in the war time, is that deer do not talk.
"Dogs pulling sleds are noisy, they bark, argue with each other, horses are also noisy, they make loud noises, but deer - never. Any other animal, but deer. It produces no sounds. None at all. It’s true, they could walk close to the enemy," Domna said.
This feature was very valuable in fighting, reconnaissance, and in other operations. One of the tasks was to evacuate the injured. A historian from Murmansk, Sergei Shishov, in his book Frontline Ski Track in the Arctic quotes a deer driver as saying:
"Our deer have rescued many injured. A wounded person loses blood, the warmth flees the body. A person gets cool, cold. While a fur cover keeps the warmth. We would wrap a person, put him on sleds. When we bring such a person to hospital - he is warm, which means - alive."
The deer battalions had tasks similar to those of car transport units: taking commanders to the troops, delivery of armaments, food, wood and fuel.
Deer were used even in paratroop missions. Due to them, the Nazi were surprised to find in the rear our mountain guns and mortars. The animals were extremely helpful in the aviation. Only deer could across the tundra to get to a crashed plane. The deer evacuated injured pilots, carried spare parts, and even power units. Every power unit could weigh at least half a tonne.
Sergei Shishov’s book reads: "Over three winter campaigns, the deer transport evacuated 10,142 injured and sick, 7,985 military; 2,302 tonnes of supplies, including armaments; 18,597 tonnes of food, and 162 faulty planes."
Wall of memory
"My great grandma - Pelageya Maximovna Konkova (Sobakina), born in 1905, used deer to transport enemy prisoners. She was afraid of the Nazi beyond words, saying they are not human, more like animals, and compared them with the devil. She used to say, she feared the prisoner could kick her with a hoof, or pick her up with horns. Though feared, she still did drive the sleds. Women, teenagers, the elderly at that time replaced the herders, who were at the front," Polina Kharybina said.
Domna’s father, Maxim Zakharov, also served during the war. Domna keeps a wall of memory with pictures of her family members.
"Mom and dad got married right before the war, in May, 1941. Dad brought mom from Voronya village, and they moved to live in Krasnoshchelye," she said. "There, they learned about the war."
Her parents did not really say a lot about the war time, telling her they did not do anything special. Domna’s father was a commander of a deer platoon, and had many military awards.
"The deer had rescued my father. He said, they were driving along a lake, and a bombing began. Father stopped the animals, made them lie down, and hid himself among the animals. When the bombing was over, he stood up and saw the deer, behind which he was lying, died of a shell fragment. His life was rescued!" Domna said.
The Saami gave to soldiers anything they had, she continued.
"They would slaughter a deer, wouldn’t leave a bite for themselves. Everything for the front! And for the family, before processing the skin, they would scratch it, collect whatnots and this was what they ate," Domna said.
"Women in the rear, were herders, they fished, made warm clothes of deer fur. Knitted socks and mittens of sheep wool. In our family they were mother Maria Zakharova and two grannies - Anfisa Pelkina and Varvara Zakharova. Grandfathers Ivan Pelkin and Anton Zakharov - made sleds for the front. They made a train chaining up several sleds to deliver food and skins to the railway stations. From there, all the goods were distributed further on. All Saami villages worked and took their goods to the stations," Khomuk said.
Modest heroes of war
Deer transport units continued service in the Red Army practically to the war end. In late 2020, in Murmansk was opened a monument to Heroes of Deer Transport Battalions. The bronze monument pays tribute to people and to animals.
"From the idea to make the monument to the day it was erected have passed almost ten years," the idea’s author Nina Ezhova said. "We know monuments to planes, artilleries, ships, but can you name monuments to unique soldiers of deer transport?"
"The Saami are modest. The families have never differed between a big heroic deed and a transportation of the injured," Polina Kharybina said. "Unfortunately not much information is available nowadays."
She has been working on a Virtual Museum of Deer Transport Battalions. "It would be a website to keep the crumbs of information we have, to keep this information in the digital format for future generations.".