Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev
Дмитрий Михайлович Карбышев
1880–1945
✕ Tortured to death at Mauthausen
The Soviet Union's greatest fortification scientist, who chose martyrdom at Mauthausen over collaboration with the Nazis
His reply to Nazi recruiters: "My convictions do not fall out with my teeth. I am a soldier and remain faithful to my duty."
A military engineer veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, and the Civil War, Karbyshev founded Soviet fortification science through over 100 publications and taught a generation of Red Army commanders at the Frunze and General Staff academies. He engineered the defensive infrastructure of Brest Fortress, the Stalin Line, and the Mannerheim Line breach. Captured in 1941, he refused every Nazi attempt to recruit him, including an offer to command the 'Russian Liberation Army' in place of Vlasov, led the camp resistance for three and a half years, and was tortured to death under ice water at Mauthausen in February 1945.
Career Timeline
- 1900–19051st East Siberian Sapper Bn, telegraph coy; Russo-Japanese War, 5 orders
- 1908–1911Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy, graduated with honours
- 1911–1917Brest Fortress construction; WWI (Brusilov Offensive); lieutenant colonel
- 1918–1920Eastern & Southern Front defensive lines; Perekop & Chongar engineer support
- 1923–1934Engr Cttee chair; chief instructor, Frunze Academy; Stalin Line design
- 1934–1941General Staff Academy dept head & professor; Lt Gen of Engineers (1940); Doctor of Military Sciences (1941)
- 1941–1945POW; refused Nazi recruitment; murdered at Mauthausen