Their weapon was the word

Abstract

The article describes various aspects of military interpreters’ work during the Great Patriotic War. The author shows the specifics of speech in a military environment and the conditionality of speech behavior of a military personnel as determined by the nature of combat tasks that they perform.

The article reveals the types of activities of any military interpreter depending on the features of the military organization of units and formations, as well as the uniqueness of the conditions in which the military personnel operate.

The author emphasizes the need for special language training and stresses the role of the Military Institute of Foreign Languages (MIFL) in the training of military interpreters during the war. It would have been impossible to start fighting without translators who not only spoke the enemy’s language, but also knew its military machine, who were able to navigate freely in captured documents, gain information from radio traffic and influence the enemy’s troops and population. The successful preparation and conduct of operations ultimately depended on those officers’ language skills.

References

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https://litresp.ru/chitat/ru/Б/bezimenskij-lev-aleksandrovich/ocobayapapka-barbarossa/7

TsAMO f. 32 op. 11306, d. 570, l. 499.