How are the fates of the Soviet pilots who were the first to receive the highest honorary title of the USSR similar and different?
The first Heroes of the Soviet Union - seven people - were, naturally, pilots. In young Soviet Russia, striving with all its might to become one of the leaders of the industrial world, the attitude towards aviation was special. It became for the pre-war USSR what cosmonautics was for the post-war USSR: a romantic dream of conquering a new living space. After all, the country itself was in many ways an attempt to make the dream of a new, previously unknown life come true. So where else to rave about the sky if not in such a world?!
The same romantic dream, only slightly inferior to the dream of heaven, was the idea of the development of sea spaces, and the culmination, the simultaneous embodiment of both of these ideas was the work on the development of the Russian North. And there is absolutely nothing strange in the fact that the first Heroes of the Soviet Union were polar aviation pilots who saved participants in the most daring polar expedition of the first half of the 1930s. On the contrary, it would be surprising if it had turned out differently, if the first were not the pilots who took the crew and passengers of the sunken steamer Chelyuskin to the mainland.
Seven heroes of Chelyuskin's epic
The greatest heroism, for the sake of which the highest award of the USSR was established, would not have happened without the greatest catastrophe. It was the first and last voyage of the Chelyuskin steamship. On March 11, 1933, it was launched under the name “Lena”, on June 19 it was renamed “Chelyuskin” in honor of the legendary Russian explorer of the North Semyon Chelyuskin, and on July 16 it set off on a voyage along the Northern Sea Route.
"Chelyuskin" had to go from Murmansk to Vladivostok - the future home port - in one navigation and thereby prove that such trips are possible. Maybe not alone, but with the support of icebreakers, but possible. This was important for a country that was gaining industrial momentum: the Northern Sea Route saved significant effort and money on delivering goods to the Far East. Alas, the expedition actually proved the opposite: without serious icebreaker support and without ships specially built for the Arctic, it is impossible to count on success during one navigation.
On September 23, 1933, after two months of sailing, the Chelyuskin was completely covered in ice, and on February 13, 1934, the ice crushed the ship, and it sank within two hours. But only one person became the victim of the disaster. The expedition's caretaker, Boris Mogilevich, who was among the last to leave the ship (together with captain Vladimir Voronin and the head of the expedition, Otto Schmidt), was crushed by a deck cargo that had fallen from its fastenings. Another 104 people managed to safely land on the ice with all the equipment necessary for wintering and began to wait for help from the mainland.
It was absolutely clear that the only way to quickly evacuate the Chelyuskinites was to remove them by plane. It was pointless to send another ship to help: it would take a long time and there was no guarantee that it would arrive before the ice began to break under the winterers. To ensure the success of the rescue operation, seven of the most experienced pilots of the newly emerging polar aviation were involved in the flights: Mikhail Vodopyanov, Ivan Doronin, Nikolai Kamanin, Anatoly Lyapidevsky, Sigismund Levanevsky, Vasily Molokov and Mauritius Slepnev - the future first Heroes of the Soviet Union.
The first 12 people were evacuated on March 5 by Anatoly Lyapidevsky on an ANT-4 plane. It was possible to reach the Chelyuskinites for the second time only on April 7, and within six days, on 24 flights, all the winterers were taken to the mainland, to the Chukotka village of Vankarem. The evacuation ended on April 13. Three days later, the Supreme Council established a new highest award of the USSR - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and four days later, on April 20, it was awarded to seven polar explorer pilots. Each of them deserves a short, but separate story - in the order in which all seven were awarded a certificate of conferment of the highest degree of distinction.
The very first: Anatoly Lyapidevsky (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 1)
Anatoly Lyapidevsky, who received the highest honor - to be the first among the first Heroes of the Soviet Union, was one of the youngest (younger than him, and only by a year, only Kamanin) members of the legendary seven. He came to aviation in 1927, graduating from the Leningrad Air Force Military Theoretical School, and then the Sevastopol Military School of Naval Pilots.
Anatoly Lyapidevsky. Photo: pervye-geroi.ru
In April 1933, Lyapidevsky, who was transferred to the reserve, went to work in civil aviation. At first he flew as a scheduled pilot in the Far East, and then asked to be transferred to the newly organized Air Service Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route - polar aviation. Less than a year later, after 29 unsuccessful flights in a blizzard and blizzard, on March 5, 1934, Anatoly Lyapidevsky became the first of the rescue squad pilots who was lucky enough to find the Chelyuskinites and land on a tiny area of flat ice cleared by winterers: only 150 by 450 meters!
The pilot had no idea that this first flight, during which he evacuated all ten women and two children from the ice - all, so to speak, “weak” winterers - would be his last in the epic. In preparation for the second flight to the Chelyuskinites, Lyapidevsky’s plane, during the flight from Uelen to Vankarem, where the headquarters of the rescue operation was located, made an emergency landing in the ice, breaking the landing gear. The Chukchi crew was saved by seeing the plane landing. It was only possible to repair it and take it into the sky on April 25. So Lyapidevsky learned that he had become the first Hero of the Soviet Union five days late: after the emergency landing, the radio did not work.
The youngest: Nikolai Kamanin (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 2)
The second Hero of the Soviet Union was the youngest of the “magnificent seven.” In order to become a cadet at the Leningrad Air Force Military Theoretical School in 1927, Kamanin had to cheat and add an extra year to himself. They believed him, and the Vladimir boy’s dream of heaven began to come true. A year later, Kamanin graduated from school in Leningrad and entered the Borisoglebsk Military Aviation Pilot School, and in 1929 he began serving in light bomber aviation in the Far East. And in five years he earned himself such an excellent reputation that when an order came from Moscow to send a detachment of military pilots from the Far East to participate in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites, there were no other candidates except Kamanin.
Nikolai Kamanin. Photo: airaces.ru
A detachment of pilots, which included Vasily Molokov, took R-5 light bombers to reach Vankarem for a month and a half! Everything resisted: the weather, and the equipment not prepared for use in polar conditions... Only the people did not let us down. As a result, having lost two planes, Kamanin’s detachment flew to Vankarem and on April 7 began evacuating the Chelyuskinites. On the first day, Kamanin and Molokov took six people from the camp to the mainland, putting three passengers in a cabin, where in normal times there would be one observer pilot. In total, the youngest of the hero pilots managed to evacuate 34 people to Vankarem - this is the second most effective figure among all seven pilots.
Most productive: Vasily Molokov (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 3)
Vasily Molokov began his military service in the Russian Imperial Navy in 1915 in the Baltic, and after the revolution he managed to combine conscription service with vocational service, becoming a mechanic in naval aviation. In 1921, Molokov graduated from the Samara naval pilot school and returned to where he began his service - to the Baltic.
Vasily Molokov. Photo: wikipedia.org
After 10 years, he retired to the reserve, worked as a pilot on passenger lines in Siberia, and in 1932 became one of the first polar pilots. In 1933, Molokov already commanded an air detachment as part of the Air Service Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route, and in March 1934, when “Chelyuskin” died, he received an order to join Nikolai Kamanin’s detachment. Molokov’s participation, as Kamanin himself recalled, seriously helped the detachment: Molokov knew well the treacherous nature of the North and knew how to fly in Arctic conditions. It is no coincidence that he became the most successful pilot of the “magnificent seven”: in total, Molokov evacuated 39 Chelyuskinites on his P-5! For example, on April 11, Molokov took out 20 people on four flights - five at a time. To do this, he had to put people not only in the pilot-observer cabin, but also in underwing parachute boxes - one and a half meter plywood “cigars”, where you could only lie down with your knees bent.
Most romantic: Sigismund Levanevsky (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 4)
The biography of Sigismund Levanevsky is romantic even for such a romantic time as the first years of Soviet Russia. A native of St. Petersburg, Polish by blood, he became a Red Guard in October 1917 and took an active part in revolutionary events. Then there was the Civil War, the fight against bandits in Dagestan and work as a supply manager in an aeronautical detachment in Petrograd. From there, in 1923, Levanevsky was sent to study at the Sevastopol Military School of Naval Pilots, to which he... was late! He had to work for almost a year in his usual position as a caretaker at the same school in order to still enroll the next year. However, the school did not regret this: Levanevsky quickly became one of the best cadets, and then, after serving in the line units, he returned there as an instructor pilot.
Qualification helped Levanevsky be among the first to become a pilot in the Air Service Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route: he worked there since the spring of 1933. And it is completely logical that, as an experienced pilot, he was involved in rescuing the Chelyuskinites. But even here Levanevsky’s romantic biography made itself felt. He became the only one of the first Heroes of the Soviet Union who, during the rescue operation... did not evacuate a single person! In February 1934, he, together with pilot Mavrikiy Slepnev and government commission commissioner Georgy Ushakov, was sent to the United States to purchase the missing Consolidated Fleetster multi-seat aircraft. On March 29, 1934, at the height of the rescue operation, Slepnev on one plane and Levanevsky and Ushakov on the other flew from American Nome to Vankarem. But only Slepnev flew there. Levanevsky made an emergency landing due to heavy icing, crashing the plane. But he still delivered the head of the operation to his destination, albeit on foot.
Of all the seven first Heroes of the Soviet Union, it was Levanevsky who did not even live to see the start of the Great Patriotic War. However, the ending of his biography was more than romantic. On August 12, 1937, on a DB-A plane with a crew of five people, he set off on a trans-Arctic flight from Moscow to Fairbanks. The next day, the plane with tail number N-209 disappeared, and the mystery of its disappearance has not been solved to this day...
Most professional: Mauritius Slepnev (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 5)
Mauritius Slepnev began to master the profession of a military pilot earlier than all other members of the “Magnificent Seven” - during the First World War. He was called up for service back in 1914, a year later he graduated from the school of warrant officers, and in 1917 he graduated from the Gatchina flying school and served as commander of an air squad with the rank of staff captain. However, Slepnev accepted the revolution immediately and unconditionally, participating in it as the commander of the Red Guard of the Luga district of Petrograd.
Mauritius Slepnev. Photo: old-yar.ru
Then there were command positions in the just nascent Red Air Force, and from 1925 - work in the civilian fleet with a stay in the military reserve (while regularly performing purely military tasks). Since 1931, Slepnev began flying in the Arctic: he became a pilot of the Air Service Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route at the same time as Levanevsky. Together they were sent to the USA for nine-seater Consolidated Fleetster aircraft. Having safely flown from Nome to Vankarem (having fallen into a snowstorm, due to which the plane began to ice up, Slepnev, unlike Levanevsky, did not break through further, but returned and flew out the next day), he took him out of the camp on the first flight on April 3 five Chelyuskinites. And on April 12, it was Slepnev who was entrusted with another difficult task: to deliver the seriously ill Otto Schmidt from Vankarem to Alaskan Nome and at the same time return home aircraft mechanics Clyde Armstedt and William Lavery (the first was a mechanic on Levanevsky’s plane, the second was Slepnev’s, but both flew on Slepnev’s car, since the head of the operation, Ushakov, was flying in Levanevsky’s car).
The most persistent: Mikhail Vodopyanov (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 6)
Mikhail Vodopyanov came to aviation later than all the others from the “magnificent seven”. However, this is how you calculate it. Formally, he only graduated from the flight school of Dobrolet (which later became Aeroflot) in 1928. But back in 1918, Vodopyanov, who volunteered for the Red Army, served as a fuel carrier in the Ilya Muromets airship division in Lipetsk! And it took ten years to return after demobilization to the planes that so amazed the nineteen-year-old boy from Lipetsk.
Mikhail Vodopyanov. Photo: warheroes.ru
After this, Vodopyanov’s flying career confidently went uphill. First, a Dobrolet pilot who participated in the fight against locusts in Central Asia, then a pioneer of the passenger route to Sakhalin. Since 1931, he was a pilot of the Pravda flight squad, which delivered the matrix of the main newspaper of the USSR to the largest cities, primarily beyond the Urals. And then there was a test flight Moscow - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, an accident on Lake Baikal and severe injuries, after which the pilot only had 36 (!) stitches on his head. With such injuries, let alone as rescuers, Chelyuskinites might not have been accepted into civil aviation! But Mikhail Vodopyanov achieved his goal: he was included in the rescue operation and was assigned to participate in the ferrying of three aircraft - two PS-3 and one R-5 - from Khabarovsk to Vankarem. Flying with Vodopyanov were pilots Ivan Doronin and Viktor Galyshev, who commanded the flight. Having covered 6,000 kilometers, the trio of pilots reached Anadyr, where the engine of Galyshev’s plane failed. Only Vodopyanov flew to Vankarem, followed by Doronin. During three flights to the Chelyuskinites, Vodopyanov took out 10 people, proving that it was not in vain that he insisted on being included in the rescue squad. By the way, he was also a participant in the last flight to the ice floe on April 13 - together with Nikolai Kamanin and Vasily Molokov.
The most experienced: Ivan Doronin (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 7)
As Doronin himself admitted to his comrades in the Chelyuskin epic, until the age of 16, he, a native of the Saratov province, “did not travel by train or ship.” But after his sixteenth birthday he gained more than his due. On a Komsomol ticket, Ivan went to restore the navy and ended up in Leningrad - first at a course for naval technicians, and then at a naval school. But he soon exchanged one ocean for another: in 1924, Doronin managed to be seconded to the Yegoryevsk Aviation Technical School, from which he was transferred to the Sevastopol Military School of Naval Pilots.
Ivan Doronin. Photo: wikipedia.org
Five years later, Ivan Doronin left the army and began working as a civilian pilot, mastering the Siberian and Far Eastern routes. Or rather, not so much by mastering it as by laying it out. By 1934, his track record included the first flight along the Irkutsk - Ust-Srednekan route, as well as participation in a polar expedition in the Kara Sea. And in the flight book it was written that during nine years of work, Doronin flew 300,000 kilometers without a single accident!
It was all the more offensive for him, an experienced pilot who, together with Mikhail Vodopyanov, broke through to Vankarem from Khabarovsk 6,000 kilometers away, to suffer an accident on his first flight to the Chelyuskinites! And not through his own fault: during landing, the ski of the PS-3 plane on which Doronin was flying came across an ice sastrugu that had frozen overnight, swerved to the side, hit another sastrugi and broke. The plane froze powerlessly right on the icy airfield... The car was quickly put in order, but during the Chelyuskin epic, Doronin managed to make only one flight and take out two people. This, however, did not in any way influence the decision to award him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - among the other seven heroes.
Five years waiting for the “Golden Star”
The decree introducing the title of Hero of the Soviet Union did not provide for any additional insignia, except for the certificate of the USSR Central Executive Committee on conferring the title. True, the first Heroes, along with a certificate, were awarded the highest award at that time - the Order of Lenin. Two years later, this practice was approved by a decree of the newly elected Supreme Council of the USSR, and three years later, in 1939, its own insignia for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union appeared - the Gold Star medal. Since by that time 122 people had already received the highest distinction, medals were awarded, so to speak, retroactively, but strictly adhering to the order in which titles were awarded. Accordingly, the Gold Star medal No. 1 was awarded to the holder of diploma No. 1 - Anatoly Lyapidevsky, and further down the list. Of the members of the “magnificent seven,” only Sigismund Levanevsky was personally unable to receive the award: by that time, he had already been listed as missing for two years.
Introduction
This short article contains only a drop of information about the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. In fact, there are a huge number of heroes and collecting all the information about these people and their exploits is a titanic work and it is already a little beyond the scope of our project. However, we decided to start with 5 heroes - many have heard about some of them, a little less information about others and few people know about them, especially the younger generation.
Victory in the Great Patriotic War was achieved by the Soviet people thanks to their incredible effort, dedication, ingenuity and self-sacrifice. This is especially clearly revealed in the heroes of the war, who performed incredible feats on the battlefield and beyond. These great people should be known to everyone who is grateful to their fathers and grandfathers for the opportunity to live in peace and tranquility.
Viktor Vasilievich Talalikhin
The story of Viktor Vasilyevich begins with the small village of Teplovka, located in the Saratov province. Here he was born in the fall of 1918. His parents were simple workers. After graduating from college, which specialized in producing workers for factories and factories, he himself worked at a meat processing plant and at the same time attended a flying club. Afterwards he graduated from one of the few pilot schools in Borisoglebsk. He took part in the conflict between our country and Finland, where he received a baptism of fire. During the period of confrontation between the USSR and Finland, Talalikhin carried out about five dozen combat missions, while destroying several enemy aircraft, as a result of which he was awarded the honorary Order of the Red Star in the forties for special successes and the completion of assigned tasks.
Viktor Vasilyevich distinguished himself with heroic feats already during the battles in the great war for our people. Although he was credited with about sixty combat missions, the main battle took place on August 6, 1941 in the skies over Moscow. As part of a small air group, Victor flew out on an I-16 to repel an enemy air attack on the capital of the USSR. At an altitude of several kilometers, he met a German He-111 bomber. Talalikhin fired several machine-gun bursts at him, but the German plane skillfully dodged them. Then Viktor Vasilyevich, through a cunning maneuver and subsequent shots from a machine gun, hit one of the bomber’s engines, but this did not help stop the “German”. To the chagrin of the Russian pilot, after unsuccessful attempts to stop the bomber, there were no live cartridges left, and Talalikhin decides to ram. For this ram he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
During the war there were many such cases, but as fate would have it, Talalikhin became the first who decided to ram, neglecting his own safety, in our skies. He died in October 1941 with the rank of squadron commander, while performing another combat mission.
Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub
In the village of Obrazhievka, the future hero, Ivan Kozhedub, was born into a family of simple peasants. After graduating from school in 1934, he entered the Chemical Technology College. The Shostka Aero Club was the first place where Kozhedub acquired flying skills. Then in 1940 he enlisted in the army. In the same year, he successfully entered and graduated from the military aviation school in the city of Chuguev.
Ivan Nikitovich took direct part in the Great Patriotic War. He has more than a hundred air battles to his name, during which he shot down 62 aircraft. Of the large number of combat sorties, two main ones can be distinguished - a battle with an Me-262 fighter with a jet engine, and an attack on a group of FW-190 bombers.
The battle with the Me-262 jet fighter took place in mid-February 1945. On this day, Ivan Nikitovich, together with his partner Dmitry Tatarenko, flew out on La-7 planes to hunt. After a short search, they came across a low-flying plane. He flew along the river from Frankfurt an der Oder. As they got closer, the pilots discovered that it was a new generation Me-262 aircraft. But this did not discourage the pilots from attacking an enemy plane. Then Kozhedub decided to attack on a collision course, since this was the only opportunity to destroy the enemy. During the attack, the wingman fired a short burst from a machine gun ahead of schedule, which could have confused all the cards. But to the surprise of Ivan Nikitovich, such an outburst by Dmitry Tatarenko had a positive effect. The German pilot turned around in such a way that he ended up in Kozhedub’s sights. All he had to do was pull the trigger and destroy the enemy. Which is what he did.
Ivan Nikitovich performed his second heroic feat in mid-April 1945 in the area of the capital of Germany. Again, together with Titarenko, carrying out another combat mission, they discovered a group of FW-190 bombers with full combat kits. Kozhedub immediately reported this to the command post, but without waiting for reinforcements, he began an attack maneuver. German pilots saw two Soviet planes take off and disappear into the clouds, but they did not attach any importance to this. Then the Russian pilots decided to attack. Kozhedub descended to the Germans' flight altitude and began shooting them, and Titarenko from a higher altitude fired in short bursts in different directions, trying to create the impression on the enemy of the presence of a large number of Soviet fighters. The German pilots believed at first, but after several minutes of battle their doubts were dispelled, and they moved on to active action to destroy the enemy. Kozhedub was on the verge of death in this battle, but his friend saved him. When Ivan Nikitovich tried to get away from the German fighter that was pursuing him and was in the firing position of the Soviet fighter, Titarenko, with a short burst, got ahead of the German pilot and destroyed the enemy aircraft. Soon a reinforcement group arrived, and the German group of aircraft was destroyed.
During the war, Kozhedub was twice recognized as a Hero of the Soviet Union and was elevated to the rank of marshal of Soviet aviation.
Dmitry Romanovich Ovcharenko
The soldier’s homeland is a village with the telling name Ovcharovo, Kharkov province. He was born into the family of a carpenter in 1919. His father taught him all the intricacies of his craft, which later played an important role in the fate of the hero. Ovcharenko studied at school for only five years, then went to work on a collective farm. He was drafted into the army in 1939. I met the first days of the war, as befits a soldier, on the front line. After a short service, he received minor damage, which, unfortunately for the soldier, became the reason for his transfer from the main unit to service at an ammunition depot. It was this position that became key for Dmitry Romanovich, in which he accomplished his feat.
It all happened in the middle of the summer of 1941 in the area of the village of Pestsa. Ovcharenko was carrying out orders from his superiors to deliver ammunition and food to a military unit located several kilometers from the village. He came across two trucks with fifty German soldiers and three officers. They surrounded him, took away his rifle and began interrogating him. But the Soviet soldier was not taken aback and, taking the ax lying next to him, cut off the head of one of the officers. While the Germans were discouraged, he took three grenades from a dead officer and threw them towards the German vehicles. These throws were extremely successful: 21 soldiers were killed on the spot, and Ovcharenko finished off the remaining ones with an ax, including the second officer who was trying to escape. The third officer still managed to escape. But even here the Soviet soldier was not at a loss. He collected all the documents, maps, records and machine guns and took them to the General Staff, while bringing ammunition and food on time. At first they did not believe him that he alone had dealt with an entire platoon of the enemy, but after a detailed study of the battle site, all doubts were dispelled.
Thanks to the heroic deed of soldier Ovcharenko, he was recognized as a Hero of the Soviet Union, and he also received one of the most significant orders - the Order of Lenin along with the Gold Star medal. He did not live to see victory for only three months. The wound received in the battles for Hungary in January was fatal for the fighter. At that time he was a machine gunner in the 389th Infantry Regiment. He went down in history as a soldier with an axe.
Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya
Zoya Anatolyevna’s homeland is the village of Osina-Gai, located in the Tambov region. She was born on September 8, 1923 into a Christian family. As fate would have it, Zoya spent her childhood in dark wanderings around the country. So, in 1925, the family was forced to move to Siberia to avoid persecution by the state. A year later they moved to Moscow, where her father died in 1933. Orphaned Zoya begins to have health problems that prevent her from studying. In the fall of 1941, Kosmodemyanskaya joined the ranks of intelligence officers and saboteurs on the Western Front. In a short time, Zoya completed combat training and began to carry out her assigned tasks.
She accomplished her heroic feat in the village of Petrishchevo. By order, Zoya and a group of fighters were instructed to burn a dozen settlements, including the village of Petrishchevo. On the night of November twenty-eighth, Zoya and her comrades made their way to the village and came under fire, as a result of which the group broke up and Kosmodemyanskaya had to act alone. After spending the night in the forest, early in the morning she set out to complete the task. Zoya managed to set fire to three houses and escape unnoticed. But when she decided to return again and finish what she started, villagers were already waiting for her, who, seeing the saboteur, immediately informed the German soldiers. Kosmodemyanskaya was captured and tortured for a long time. They tried to extract information from her about the unit in which she served and her name. Zoya refused and didn’t say anything, and when asked what her name was, she called herself Tanya. The Germans felt that they could not get more information and hung it up in public. Zoya met her death with dignity, and her last words went down in history forever. Dying, she said that our people number one hundred and seventy million people, and they cannot be outweighed in all. So, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya died heroically.
Mentions of Zoya are associated primarily with the name “Tanya”, under which she went down in history. She is also a Hero of the Soviet Union. Her distinctive feature is that she is the first woman to receive this honorary title posthumously.
Alexey Tikhonovich Sevastyanov
This hero was the son of a simple cavalryman, a native of the Tver region, and was born in the winter of 1917 in the small village of Kholm. After graduating from technical school in Kalinin, he entered the military aviation school. Sevastyanov finished it successfully in 1939. In more than a hundred combat sorties, he destroyed four enemy aircraft, of which two each personally and in a group, as well as one balloon.
He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. The most important sorties for Alexei Tikhonovich were battles in the skies over the Leningrad region. So, on November 4, 1941, Sevastyanov patrolled the skies over the Northern capital in his IL-153 aircraft. And just while he was on duty, the Germans carried out a raid. The artillery could not cope with the onslaught and Alexei Tikhonovich had to join the battle. The German He-111 aircraft managed to keep away the Soviet fighter for a long time. After two unsuccessful attacks, Sevastyanov made a third attempt, but when the time came to pull the trigger and destroy the enemy with a short burst, the Soviet pilot discovered a lack of ammunition. Without thinking twice, he decides to go for the ram. A Soviet plane pierced the tail of an enemy bomber with its propeller. For Sevastyanov, this maneuver turned out well, but for the Germans it all ended in captivity.
The second significant flight and the last for the hero was an air battle in the skies over Ladoga. Alexey Tikhonovich died in an unequal battle with the enemy on April 23, 1942.
Conclusion
As we have already said in this article, not all the heroes of the war are collected; there are about eleven thousand of them in total (according to official data). Among them are Russians, Kazakhs, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and all other nations of our multinational state. There are those who did not receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, having committed an equally important act, but due to a coincidence of circumstances, information about them was lost. There was a lot in the war: desertion of soldiers, betrayal, death, and much more, but the most important thing was the exploits of such heroes. Thanks to them, victory was won in the Great Patriotic War.
Hero of the USSR is the most honorable title that existed in the Soviet Union. It was awarded for outstanding feats, significant services during hostilities, and, as an exception, could be awarded in peacetime. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union appeared in 1934.
Honorary title
During the existence of the Soviet Union, 12,777 people received the title of Hero of the USSR. At the same time, sometimes a person awarded such an award was deprived of it. It is known that 72 people were deprived of it for actions that in the future discredited this title; there are also 13 precedents when the decision was canceled as unfounded.
They often became heroes of the USSR more than once. For example, Pokryshkin, Budyonny and Kozhedub were awarded it three times, and Zhukov and Brezhnev - four times each.
It is interesting that the title was awarded not only to people, but also to cities. Thus, after the Great Patriotic War, 12 cities and the hero-fortress of Brest received the title of Hero of the USSR. In this article we will focus on the most iconic names from this list. Now you will know exactly how many heroes of the USSR existed during all this time.
Hero of the USSR (photo above) Anatoly Lyapidevsky became the first hero of the Soviet Union in history. This award was presented to him in 1934. He was a pilot, and after the war he received the rank of major general.
He went to serve in the Red Army back in 1926. In 1934, Lyapidevsky participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites. In terrible weather conditions, he made 29 missions to search for the missing expedition. As a result, he managed to discover their camp. The pilot landed riskily on an ice floe and took out 12 people, of whom there were two children and the rest were women.
Afterwards Lyapidevsky took part in the Great Patriotic War, commanded the 19th Army, and directed an aircraft factory. He died in 1983, when he was 75 years old.
Volkan Goranov
The list of heroes of the USSR contains names not only of citizens of the Soviet Union, but also of foreign countries. First of all, of course, from republics friendly to the Soviets. These include the Bulgarian pilot Volkan Goranov. He served in the Red Army for 15 years. Received the rank of Colonel General.
As a fighter pilot, he took part in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the supporters of the Republic. He became the first foreign citizen to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union of the USSR.
In addition to the battles in the Kuban, he participates in the Mius offensive operation, air battles in the Donbass, Melitopol, and Crimea.
In 1944, he was appointed commander of the Guards fighter regiment. Now he devotes more and more time to command, and can no longer fly combat missions as often. Although the Germans were afraid of him until the end of the war, announcing in advance to everyone around: “Attention! Pokryshkin is in the air.”
Four titles of Hero of the Soviet Union for the Soviet commander, who after the Great Patriotic War received the unofficial nickname Marshal of Victory.
During the battles with the Nazis, he headed the General Staff, commanded the front, and was a member of the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. His role in the decisive and final victory in the Great Patriotic War is difficult to underestimate.
Many believed that after the triumph in 1945, he was more popular in the country than Stalin, which forced the leader to reconsider his attitude towards the legendary commander, soon removing him from key positions in the management of the Soviet army.
Exactly 80 years ago, on April 16, 1934, by the Decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, a new honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union was established - the highest degree of distinction. The title was awarded for personal or collective merits associated with the accomplishment of a heroic feat both in war and in peacetime. It is curious that the provision for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was established only on July 29, 1936. This honorary title was awarded until the collapse of the USSR; the last award took place on December 24, 1991. The total number of awards was 12,776. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the title was abolished and was replaced by the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. Every year on December 9, Russia celebrates a memorable date - the Day of Heroes of the Fatherland.
The first resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee on awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was signed on April 20, 1934. Such a high award was given to Soviet pilots who showed courage and courage in rescuing the crew of the icebreaker Chelyuskin, which suffered a disaster in the Arctic Ocean. In total, 7 people were awarded: Anatoly Lyapidevsky, Mikhail Vodopyanov, Ivan Doronin, Nikolay Kamanin, Sigismund Levanevsky, Vasily Molokov, Mavriky Slepnev. The eighth recipient was the famous Soviet test pilot Mikhail Gromov. He was awarded for setting the world record for flight distance.
He was followed by other Soviet pilots and polar explorers: Valery Chkalov, Alexander Belyakov and Georgy Baidukov. In November 1938, for the first time, women pilots Valentina Grizodubova, Polina Osipenko and Marina Raskova were also awarded such a high rank. They were nominated for the title for completing a non-stop flight from Moscow to the Far East.
Initially, there were no additional awards for the title; only the issuance of a certificate from the Central Executive Committee of the USSR was provided. However, the pilots who rescued polar explorers in the Bering Sea were also awarded the Order of Lenin. It is worth noting that all subsequent Heroes of the Soviet Union also received this order, but at the legislative level this rule was enshrined only in 1936 with the adoption of the Regulations on the title of Hero. By decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of August 1, 1939, another sign of special distinction was established for the Heroes of the country - the Gold Star medal. Since 1939, Heroes of the Soviet Union have been awarded the Order of Lenin (the highest award of the USSR), the Gold Star medal and a certificate of honor from the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces. The possibility of re-awarding citizens was also provided for, which was not determined initially.
Heroes of the Soviet Union who performed a heroic feat a second time were awarded a second Gold Star medal, and a monument was erected in the hero’s homeland - a bronze bust. When awarding the twice Hero of the Soviet Union with the third Gold Star medal, it was planned to install a bronze bust of this man on a pedestal in the form of a column located in the capital at the Palace of the Soviets, the construction of which began in Moscow in the 1930s. Moreover, with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, all construction work was stopped, and construction of the Palace of Soviets was never resumed. For this reason, busts of three times Heroes of the Soviet Union began to be erected in the Kremlin.
The description of the new medal was finally approved by decree of October 16, 1939. This award was a five-pointed star made of gold, the rays of the star on the front side were smooth and dihedral, and on the back side there was the inscription “Hero of the USSR.” The medal, using a ring and an eyelet, was connected to a rectangular gilded plate, which was covered with a red moire ribbon. On the reverse side of this plate there was a threaded pin with a nut, intended for attaching the medal to clothing. The place where the Gold Star medal was worn was determined on June 19, 1943. The medal was supposed to be attached to clothing on the left side of the chest, located above all other orders and medals.
Three times Hero of the Soviet Union I. N. Kozhedub
In total, before the start of the Great Patriotic War in the USSR, 626 people were awarded the high title of Hero, of which 5 people were re-awarded the Gold Star medal. Most of the awards occurred during the Great Patriotic War - more than 90% of the total number of awarded persons. In total, more than 11 thousand people became Heroes of the Soviet Union during the war years. Moreover, over 100 of them became twice Heroes of the Soviet Union. Three times Heroes of the Soviet Union were air marshals, famous military aces I. N. Kozhedub and A. I. Pokryshkin, as well as Marshal S. M. Budyonny. Only 2 people were four times Heroes of the Soviet Union: Marshal G.K. Zhukov and Marshal L.I. Brezhnev.
In the total number of Heroes of the Soviet Union, there was a place for 95 women, one of whom, pilot-cosmonaut S.E. Savitskaya, became the only woman to receive the “Hero” twice. In addition, 44 foreign citizens were awarded the title of Hero, including the only foreign woman, A. T. Kzhiwoń, who was a private submachine gunner in the Polish division of T. Kosciuszko. She was awarded this award posthumously on November 11, 1943.
Moreover, more than 100 people at different times and for completely different reasons were deprived of this high title. To be fair, we note that some of them were subsequently reinstated in rank. For 13 people, the Decrees on conferring such a high rank were canceled due to unfounded nomination for the award. At the moment, for one reason or another, 73 people have been deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (the vast majority for committing criminal offenses).
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union S. E. Savitskaya
It is worth noting that people who were awarded the title of Hero in the USSR were showered with national glory, love and honor from citizens. Portraits of Heroes of the Soviet Union were published in various newspapers, their names were known throughout the country. Some could not even withstand the severity and responsibility of such a burden of fame. In the USSR, a whole list of benefits was established for Heroes of the Soviet Union; it was adopted on September 6, 1967. The list of benefits was expanded on April 30, 1975, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The list of benefits provided for the payment of personal pensions of union significance to the Heroes of the Soviet Union, free travel on public transport, reduced housing costs and a number of other benefits.
Throughout the existence of this title, its position has been revised several times. In particular, in May 1973, a new Regulation was adopted, according to which, during the repeated and subsequent assignment of the title to a citizen, in addition to the Gold Star medal, each time the Order of Lenin was awarded. And since August 1988, the repeated awarding of the Heroes of the Soviet Union with the Gold Star medal was cancelled. Also, from the second half of the 70s of the last century, the title began to be awarded to government and party leaders in connection with their national or personal anniversaries or holidays. Since 1988, such awards have also been abolished.
The last award of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in the Soviet Union occurred on December 24, 1991 (the country ceased to exist on December 26, 1991). The last rank was awarded to Leonid Solodkov, a diving specialist, captain of the 3rd rank, who showed heroism and courage in carrying out a special command task during testing of new diving equipment. In March 1992, another title was introduced in Russia - Hero of the Russian Federation, which became a full-fledged successor to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The Gold Star medal has also remained virtually unchanged.
Based on materials from open sources.
Republic of Tatarstan.
Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union Akhtyamov Sabir Akhtyamovich: “And I walked along Red Square on June 24, 1945, and on that day I was the happiest person in the whole world!”
Sabir Akhtyamov was born on July 15, 1926 in the village of Verkhniy Iskubash, Takanishsky district (now Kukmorsky district) of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In November 1943. He was drafted into the army. From June 19 to October 10, 1944, he fought as an armor-piercer in the 4th motorized rifle brigade of the 210th Guards Tank Corps. Was injured.
Military awards: medal "Golden Star", The order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner, Red Star, many other state and departmental medals.
In the internal troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs from 03/08/1951 to 07/25/1972. He retired from the post of commander of a military unit of the internal troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (Arzamas-16). Retired colonel.
BLACKSMITH
“I was the eldest in the family, and the youngest among my friends. They didn’t take me to school because of my age, but I went. I studied well. And two months after the start of the school year, I was still enrolled in first grade. For as long as I can remember, I hung around my father in the forge. When I graduated from the seventh grade, I went to work with him as a hammerman. Plows, seeders, winnowers, and reapers were repaired. The technique was simple. And besides this, he knew a lot of different things.In '41, my father went to the front. I remained a blacksmith and breadwinner. In the family there is a mother and there are seven of us: small and small. The rightful owner of the forge, I took in the wounded who returned from the war as my assistants. And things went on.
AIRPLANE
Airplanes in the early forties, especially in the skies above the village, were a rarity. And here we are so lucky: the corn man! Lower, lower and landed, sat down. The village came running: a real plane!The pilot was looking for a blacksmith.
“Can you solder the tank,” he asks, “can you?!”
“Well,” I say, “you can’t solder it!” Certainly can".
We removed the gas tank. I soldered it.
“Do you want,” he offers, “to go for a ride?”
I couldn’t believe my ears.
"Want!" - I answer.
He lifted me into the heavens, and everything was clearly visible from above! The houses are tiny, the people are like peas! The roads and forest are like toys. Breathtaking! An unimaginable feeling. We circled over the collective farm "Shock Year". And word spread around the area: “Sabir fixed the plane.” They didn’t say “gas tank” - “fixed the plane.” And they were very proud. Me too.TARGET HIT
In '43, in November, I was drafted into the army. First we arrived at the Surok station, near Suslonger, to the reserve regiment. We spent six months learning to shoot with an anti-tank rifle (ATR). In May of forty-four we arrived near Smolensk, to the places where a year ago, in forty-three, my father died. They said that Smolensk was only twelve kilometers away. In the fishing line we washed ourselves in the soldier’s bathhouse. We shot a couple of times for training with the PTR. This is how the 3rd Belorussian Front began for me. Then there was Operation Bagration.I served in the PTR company of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion of the 2nd Tatsin Guards Tank Corps. The corps received its name in memory of a remarkable raid deep into enemy rear near Stalingrad, when, with a sudden rush near the town of Tatsinskoye, tanks attacked a fascist airfield and, on Stalin’s personal orders, destroyed four hundred aircraft! So I ended up in the illustrious association. This means a lot for self-confidence and morale.
For a long time I had Ivan Lukovkin as number two. Two people were supposed to carry a gun. But we divided equally: I - a gun, sixteen kilograms, he - a box of cartridges - also a pound. Each cartridge weighed two hundred and fifty grams, it was a heavy thing: something had to penetrate the tank!
The first battle took place near Orsha. Our tanks broke through. And the German, apparently, hit us from the flank. Near the village of Staroselye. Ivan and I barely had time to dig in when a tank was scratching towards us. I let him come to two hundred and fifty meters - I hit him! I see: flash! It means he hit, but he’s moving... He hit again and again! Set it on fire. Behind the tank, a self-propelled gun (self-propelled artillery unit) appeared almost immediately. Then the artillery struck... The battle was also successful for the other companies. For the tank and self-propelled gun I was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
Soon we made a march to Minsk.
IN EAST PRUSSIA
...Aviation again. A reconnaissance plane is circling above our location. It circles and circles. Ivan and I couldn’t resist - we raised the trunk. I fired two shots at the plane. I saw that it began to smoke and collapsed behind the forest. The battalion commander, when we met, asked:“Did you shoot?”
“I shot,” I say.
“Knocked out?”
“I knocked it out,” I answer, “We saw it.”
“And the anti-aircraft gunners claim that they shot down! It turns out they also shot. To hell with them! - He waved his hand, - in the end, what difference does it make who! The main thing is that they were shot down.”
On the one hand, of course, I agreed. On the other hand, they paid extra for the destruction of enemy equipment. I don't remember how much for the plane. But for tanks and self-propelled guns, it seems they sent my mother five hundred rubles each. I just signed, I didn’t receive it myself: the soldier was on state pay.NEMMERSDORF
Ponomarev's battalion was stopped by enemy fire: on a hill it was either a pillbox or a bunker - it is not clear. The platoon commander orders: “Destroy!” Ivan and I rushed there, using natural shelters, folds of the terrain, on our bellies. They crawled to within range of an aimed shot. I have already pointed it, and Lukovkin looks through binoculars and sees two tubercles. Like two firing points. I fired. First on the first and immediately on the second. Both burst into flames! It turns out that she was standing in a self-propelled gun trench! It turns out that we carried out the order. The officers said that the Ferdinand was a new unit, and we set fire to its gas tanks. And then our battalion took the settlement.The corps moved in the direction of Koenigsberg. One day we were standing near the forest. Suddenly there is a roar, a crash! We turned around. What's happened?! It turns out that it was reconnaissance in force. An enemy unit penetrated deep into our defenses and suddenly attacked. We quickly got our bearings and put them down to the German company. Ivan and I knocked out two self-propelled guns.
Nevertheless, they knew: if reconnaissance was carried out in force and in large forces, it meant that a counter-offensive was being prepared. We wait. Spread out. They occupied a former German fortified area. The morning turned out to be quiet and foggy. When it was completely dawn, it was hard to believe: the city was moving towards us! Tanks in battle formation supported by infantry. They are in the fog - just like at home. The psychological impact is amazing. “Shoot! – Ivan shouts, “shoot faster!” Well, what am I going to shoot?! Far. I waited. He got close to three hundred meters - four shots! Apparently the caterpillar was torn off. The tank didn’t catch fire, but it was spun so much that it turned ninety degrees: it was moving at speed! He offered us his tank. And we set it on fire.
Then the second one was hit. All this happened on the left flank. They forgot about the right one. He fell out of our sight. Suddenly, about five meters to the right, a wall rises - a howl, a crash, an earthquake!.. We were not at a loss. The main thing in this matter is not to get lost. The Germans' trenches were arranged according to all the rules of fortification: a ledge to the right, a ledge to the left. We rushed first to the side, and then forward - and ended up behind the tank moving towards us. I smashed him point blank.
For us this was the highest point of tension. Death has passed. When I sighed, I saw that my entire overcoat was covered with shrapnel and bullets, but not a single wound! Lucky. Heard no one and felt nothing. Then Ivan and I knocked out two more self-propelled guns and burned a couple of trucks. But it wasn’t the same... After the battle, battalion commander Ponomarev shouted in passing: “Well done, guys! I nominated you for an award!”
January. New offensive. A German stopped us near Aulzvenin with dagger fire. We see that at the line he has two camouflaged “panthers” - heavy tanks. Our gun does not take their armor. And not far from them there is a residential building. Platoon commander Lieutenant Neklyudov tells us: “Try from above, guys!” By that time, my partner Ivan had already died, and I had another number two...
The place is open. The density of the fire is terrible. Let's crawl. They are ready to grow into the ground, but they need to move. There is a road ahead. And from the side of the road they are spraying us, it seems, with all types of small arms: “Ding! Ding!” I think: “What kind of call?!” When I got out, I looked at myself: there were holes in the bowler hat behind my back. The second number was wounded - he froze. I crawled alone. Well, here is the house! But, before going up to the attic, you need to go through the first floor. Who's there?! I carefully enter the door and look around. I'm waiting for the German. Forward... German! Right in front of me! I slammed it down - and a shower of glass - a huge mirror, the entire wall, and I hit my reflection! He spat, exhaled, climbed into the attic. From there the tanks are in full view. He pointed the gun and hit the hatch into the turret from above. It caught fire immediately! The second one was more difficult to take; it did not stand so comfortably. And I had to hurry: I discovered myself.
Then I cheated - I fired two shots at the barrel of the Panther. The tank fired almost simultaneously with me - and its cannon was torn apart by the shell! My plan was a success: the impact of the bullet damaged the structure of the metal, maybe that’s why the barrel was pierced... And artillery was already hitting me. The shell hit the first floor and “cleaned” everything underneath me so much that the attic was left hanging on its word of honor. He held onto the reinforcement with one hand and the gun in the other. Somehow, thanks to the Ibash forge - there was strength - I went down...
When I returned, my people were no longer there. There was a shift; ours occupied other positions. Finally found it after some time. Brigade commander Antipin, let's hug me. He shouts: “Cross out Akhtyamov! He is alive!" They already listed me as dead: they saw how the house was torn apart. The brigade commander poured me some rum. I drank and ate. Go to the company... Mina! Zhah! – she rushed, and I received a shrapnel wound in my leg!.. They sent me to the medical unit.
For the “Panthers” they were nominated for the Order of the Red Banner and were soon awarded. They would nominate you, they say, as a Hero, but you won’t get it! While the documents are sent to Moscow... Back and forth, checks... And the army commander could award the order. However, on March 24, 1945, the newspaper published that I was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of Lenin with the Golden Star medal. I found out about this at a banquet hosted by the commander on the corps’ birthday. He congratulated me. This is for that battle when Ivan Lukovkin and I almost went hand-to-hand against a tank. The battalion commander then said that he presented him for an award, but kept silent about which one.
VICTORY PARADE
They sent us to the Eastern Front to fight the Japanese. Yes, they replayed something, left it... They appointed me to participate in the Victory Parade on Red Square. We prepared, we trained. And just before the parade, one of the father-commanders pointed at me: “Where is this going?!” He was not tall enough, they say. There was an order: do not take below one hundred and seventy. And I was one hundred and sixty-five. I say: “How to burn tanks, so normal, but how to go to a parade, so small?!” The general heard and came up: “Unbutton your overcoat!” I unbuttoned - my chest was covered in medals! “Are you,” he says, “such a guy!..” And I walked along Red Square on June 24, 1945, and that day I was the happiest person in the whole world!
Here's what parade participant Po wrote about this historical fact: troubles of 1945, correspondent for the newspaper "Red Star" V. Popov: "Consolidated Regiment of the 3rd Belorussian front, in which I had the opportunity to teach to participate in the parade, formed in Königsberg ge. First construction. Ranking RU. The morning was gloomy and cool. We were in greatcoats. At first everything went smoothly, but then there was a hitch. Short junior The sergeant, as they say, did not fit into the overall picture.
- Unfit! – the officer said, looking at him. - Next.
- How is it unsuitable? – asked the front-line soldier. “He’s good enough to fight, but he’s not good enough to go to a parade.”
To the noise of voices the commander arrived consolidated regiment general P. Koshevoy.
- Who is that here? which one is hot? – he asked friendly.
- Junior Sergeant Akhtyamov,” the soldier was embarrassed when he saw the general.
Show name was familiar to the general my. He's up to something minal, then said:
- Take off your overcoat.
He took it off. And everyone saw the tunic in and the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. This was the same Sabir Akhtyamov who, in two days of fighting at Nemmersdorf, knocked out three enemy tanks with an anti-tank rifle, three assault guns and two armored personnel carriers.
- You can’t take such an eagle! - said the general. “Enlist in the regiment!”At the end of the Great Patriotic War, I remained in extended service. Then he completed courses for political officers and received an officer rank. Served in the internal troops to protect important government facilities in Arzamas-16. Not without difficulty, he transported his mother and family, who were eking out a miserable existence in the village, to the “closed” city.
Later, when I was already a company political officer, I graduated from the school for working youth, then from the Military Institute of the KGB of the USSR. Returned to serve as chief of staff of the unit. Subsequently, by order of the command, he formed a new military unit and commanded it. He worked under the guidance of academicians Sakharov, Khariton, Zeldovich: he guarded their “secret economy”. He retired with the rank of colonel in 1972.
But I am still in service, because I am on the list of members of the Council of Veterans of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Tatarstan.”
Saint Petersburg
Hero of the Soviet Union Ashik Mikhail Vladimirovich
Mikhail Vladimirovich Ashik was born on June 25, 1925 in Leningrad. In the active army since 1943. In 1944 he graduated from the courses for junior lieutenants of the 4th Ukrainian Front. To the commander of a rifle platoon on May 15, 1946, for the exemplary performance of command tasks on the front of the fight against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown to Lieutenant M.V. Ashik was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He participated in the liberation of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. He was wounded three times.
In 1949 he graduated from the Leningrad Officer School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 1958 - from the KGB Military Institute. F.E. Dzerzhinsky. For thirty years he served in the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in various positions, including regiment commander in Magadan, chief of staff of a division in Leningrad, deputy head of the Higher Political School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR (1969-1979). Awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky 3rd degree, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, two Orders of the Red Star, the Order “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR” 3rd degree, the Hungarian Order “Star of the Republic”, the medal “For Courage” and many other medals , including foreign countries.
From 1979 to the present, he is a member of the Veterans Council of the Regional Public Organization of Veterans of the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. Takes an active part in the military-patriotic and professional education of university cadets and students, youth of the Krasnoselsky district and the city of St. Petersburg.
“It seemed to me that the war lasted a lifetime. In any case, when I returned home, I was sure that everything was already behind me, and nothing would happen ahead: the devastation in my soul was terrible. And this feeling did not go away immediately. Four capacious years of war included in my biography the blockade, evacuation on the ice of Lake Ladoga, soldier’s service in the infantry on the front line, hospitals after three wounds, and officer duties at the front.
…In 1941, I encountered the Great Patriotic War in Leningrad as an eighth-grader. Labor conscription was immediately announced, and through the district committee of the Komsomol of the Petrograd region, in a column of the same guys, I was sent to build an airfield at the Gorskaya station near Lisiy Nos. They began to build the airfield with just shovels on a hummocky swamp, but ten to fifteen days later the first I-16 fighter landed on the runway leveled by schoolchildren.
Returning to Leningrad, I learned from the airfield construction site that the building of the school where I studied was occupied by some military unit. In order not to look for another school, I decided to go to study at the maritime technical school on Vasilievsky Island. He successfully passed the exams and was enrolled in the navigation department. On September 1, 1941, the newly minted students were lined up in a column, brought to the banks of the Neva, put on a steamer and taken to the village of Rybatskoye to dig an anti-tank ditch there. By that time, the Germans had already reached the banks of the Neva, and the fighting was taking place several kilometers away, beyond the village of Kolpino.
A week later, the blockade ring around Leningrad closed, and night bombing of the city began. Yesterday's schoolchildren digging a ditch saw the horizon line blazing with fire behind them and it seemed that the whole city was on fire. When the anti-tank ditch was ready, the technical school students were returned to their desks, but their studies lasted only a few days. We were soon returned to the area of the village of Rybatskoye. This time it was necessary to dig dugouts for the fighters, who were located right there in open trenches, and the battles took place three to five kilometers away near the village of Kolpino. When, in October 1941, we returned to Leningrad, the classes actually could not continue: the electricity went out, there was no heating, the water supply stopped working, and with it the sewage system.
In December 1941, the mandatory evacuation of the population across Lake Ladoga began; in March 1942, my family was taken along the ice road across Lake Ladoga to the “Mainland” in the town of “Kobona”. Further from Tikhvin we traveled in a train of freight cars for exactly a month. They unloaded us into the steppe and resettled all Leningraders in local villages. There they were fed for free for three months at the expense of the collective farm, and then those who had recovered from dystrophy began to help the collective farmers.
In February 1943, at the age of seventeen and a half, I was drafted into the Red Army. In the same month, he found himself on the Southern Front in the 387th Infantry Division advancing on Rostov, where he served as a private in a machine gun crew.
The 387th Division occupied positions on the Mius River. In military literature, both our and German authors quite often call this line the Mius Front. On July 17, 1943, I was wounded during the offensive. After treatment in hospitals in Rostov, Zernograd and the village of Orlovskaya, he was sent to the convalescent battalion at the Zverevo station. From there I was sent to Donbass. After we liberated the city of Makeevka, I, who by that time had become a junior sergeant, was sent to a course for junior lieutenants of the Southern Front, which was soon renamed the 4th Ukrainian Front. Training at the courses was actually on the move, because the front was advancing, and the courses were the reserve of the front commander, General F.I. Tolbukhin. The cadets were always armed, had with them a full load of ammunition and grenades, a small sapper blade and a raincoat. They were housed in huts in nearby villages, or even in the open air. On April 19, 1944, the junior lieutenant course graduated. Having received the rank of junior lieutenant, I still remained in soldier's uniform. Later, among a large group of graduates, he was sent to the Separate Primorsky Army in Crimea. There he was appointed to the post of commander of a rifle platoon of the 144th separate marine battalion of the 83rd separate marine brigade.
From Crimea we redeployed to Odessa, and there, as part of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, we took part in the crossing of the Dniester estuary, which was carried out during the Iasi-Kishinev operation. For successful military operations during the brigade's landing on the western bank of the estuary, I was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
During the attack on Bessarabia I reached the Danube. And having crossed the river, he ended up in Romania, whose troops capitulated and immediately joined the battles against the German army. Liberating Romania, the 83rd Marine Brigade ended up in Bulgaria. In September-November 1944, she served in coastal defense near the Turkish border, in the area of the city of Burgas.
In November 1944, as part of the 144th battalion, I returned to the Danube, where the 83rd brigade was included in the Danube Flotilla. On December 5, 1944, while participating in the landing near the city of Dunapenteli, I was awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, 3rd degree. In subsequent battles on the Danube island, Csepen was wounded, and after recovery he managed to return to his battalion, fighting in Budapest. There, for successful military operations, he was awarded the medal “For Courage”, and then the medal “For the Capture of Budapest”.
In March 1945, the 144th battalion was sent to the Hungarian city of Esztergom. The task of the landing party was to break through on armored boats to the right bank of the Danube, reach the Budapest-Vienna highway, saddle it, and hold it until units advancing from the front arrived. The battle behind enemy lines was planned for a day, but our advancing troops arrived only on the fourth day. All this time, the landing party was subjected to numerous attacks by enemy tanks and infantry. My platoon’s position turned out to be on the road itself, along which the main attacks of the counterattack groups were delivered. The steadfastness of the platoon and the actions of the commander were highly appreciated by the Motherland: I was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, which I was awarded on May 15, 1946. In subsequent battles on the territory of Czechoslovakia, I was wounded for the third time, but managed to return to my 144th battalion before the end of the fighting. In July 1945, the 83rd Separate Marine Brigade was disbanded. I continued to serve in the 113th Guards Rifle Division, from which I was demobilized as an officer who was wounded three times in battle and had no military education.
At the end of August 1946, having returned to Leningrad to his parents, he was hired by the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a senior inspector in the personnel department of the Leningrad Internal Affairs Directorate. In September 1947, I was enrolled as a cadet at the Leningrad Officer School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, from which I graduated in 1949. After graduation, he was sent to the 23rd Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the position of detective in the counterintelligence department. The division was stationed in Leningrad and was busy guarding particularly important facilities, including the Mint, the Gosznak factory, the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Rzhev Test Site and others.
In May 1951, in connection with the disbandment of the 23rd Division, I, being a senior lieutenant, among a large group of officers, was sent to the disposal of the head of Dalstroy in the city of Magadan, and there I was appointed senior detective of the counterintelligence department of the 1st Directorate of Dalstroy. While working in this department, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star, graduated from an evening school for working youth, and finally received a secondary education. In the spring of 1955, he was awarded the military rank of captain. That same year, I was sent from Magadan to study at the Military Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which later transferred to the KGB department.
He graduated from the Military Institute with honors in 1958, received the military rank of “major” and was again sent to Magadan, where he worked as a junior and then senior assistant to the chief of staff of a local unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and later commanded a military unit. With the rank of lieutenant colonel, he was transferred to the city of Leningrad to the position of deputy chief of staff of a formation of internal troops. In November 1967, I was awarded the rank of “Colonel” and was given the “Honored Worker of the Ministry of Internal Affairs” badge. A year later he was appointed chief of staff of the unit. In March 1970, he was promoted to the Higher Political School to the position of deputy chief of the combat unit. I served in this military university for almost ten years. In 1975 he was awarded the Order “For Service to the Motherland”, 3rd degree, and in 1978 he was transferred to the reserve.
While retired, he worked for more than twenty years as a leading engineer in the scientific and technical information department of the tank design bureau (KB-3) of the Kirov plant in Leningrad. There, he co-authored three books: “Designer of Combat Vehicles” (about the chief designer of the Kirov Plant, Zh.Ya. Kotin); “Without secrets or secrets” (the history of the Design Bureau) and “The Tank that Defied Time” (about the T-80 tank, created at KB-3 of the Kirov Plant).
He wrote several books, essays and articles mainly about the combat path of the 83rd Marine Brigade.
In 1984, together with Hero of the Soviet Union F.E. Kotanov went to Bulgaria to film the film “Hello, Brothers.” During the filming of F.E. Kotanov was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Burgas,” where his battalion landed. I was awarded the title "Honorary Citizen of the City of Primorsk", in which my company served in coastal defense in September-November 1944.
I have two sons. The eldest son Vladimir is a submarine officer. The youngest son, Igor, is an oceanologist, has repeatedly participated in expeditions to the Arctic, ensured the immersion of underwater vehicles at the North Pole and the landing of the North Pole stations on the polar ice. The sons gave two grandchildren, a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter. One of the grandchildren, Mikhail Igorevich Ashik, is a captain of justice, graduated from the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, works as a senior investigator in the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Petrogradsky District of the city of St. Petersburg.”
Pyotr Evseevich Braiko was born on September 9, 1918 in the village of Mitchenki, Chernigov region.
In the army since 1938. At the front since 1941. Border guard, regiment commander.
Finished the war in 1944.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded on August 7, 1944.
Awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, and the Order of the Patriotic WarIdegree, Red Star, many state and departmental medals.
He served in the internal troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Honorary citizen of Zimosc (Poland).“Whenever I think about the Great Victory, I involuntarily, with pain and bitterness in my soul, think, first of all, about the price at which our people got it.
And I always think, or rather, rejoice in the fact that I (to spite all the deaths!) managed not only to survive, but also to do a lot to bring victory over the enemy closer. Although during the most brutal battle I could have died many times.
And, believe it or not, I, as a participant in this difficult battle (both at the front and in the rear of the enemy army), as an officer who has received unusual combat experience, cannot get out of my head the question: what did the past teach me? war our army, our military command?
A similar question, if I heard correctly, was asked by former Russian President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev to our military men in St. Petersburg at the anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad. I don’t know what they answered to him then. But, judging by what happened with the Soviet and then with the Russian army in the post-war years, I think that our command did not learn anything from the past war.
Why? Let's think together.
As is known, the regular Red Army, trained to fight according to outdated academic templates, began the war without knowing how to fight at all. Therefore, in 1941, its two main personnel echelons - seventeen armies, about four million people - were surrounded and died.
Then we were forced to continue to repel aggression, and then liberate our native land with an already untrained army and in the same long-outdated way. That is, we won not with our minds, but with our people. That is why the archi lost so many of their soldiers and officers. The Russian classic Viktor Astafiev figuratively and very accurately noted: “During this war, we filled the German army with blood and littered the corpses of our soldiers.”
However, the selfless love of Soviet soldiers for the Fatherland called for heroism. Many of them, imitating the participants in the civil war, showed unprecedented heroism and a new, hitherto unknown ability to defeat the enemy. There were many such brave craftsmen during the years of desperate battle with the aggressor. The best of them were awarded by the military command and the Soviet government with the highest degree of distinction - the title “Hero of the Soviet Union.” During the Great Patriotic War, there were 12,722 such knights. Through personal courage, they discovered new tactics and strategies for waging war for their native army and its command. The new “Science of Winning.”
It is a great pity, of course, that on the day of the 70th anniversary of our Victory there are fewer and fewer such knights of war left. And it’s a triple pity, even a shame, that almost all of them passed away unclaimed. For almost seventy years, our command and its military “scientists”, who managed to become army generals, were never able, or rather, did not bother to demand, learn from these knights of war the priceless new things that they managed to discover in the fire of battles. That is why the Russian army and its commanders continue to study today according to long-outdated regulations: not to defeat the enemy, but to die heroically on the battlefield. This was “brilliantly” confirmed by our peacekeeping detachment in South Ossetia in August 2008.
I’m talking about this because I myself went through everything, saw it, experienced it. Because this cannot be forgotten. And also because I, the only person in the country, still managed to claim from fifty such knights of war everything new and priceless that they did for their native Red Army and the country as a whole.
The result is a unique collection of confessions of fifty Heroes of the Soviet Union. Its title is “To Spite All Deaths!” The book was published by the capital's publishing house "Znanie" with a circulation of one and a half thousand in 2001. The prefecture of the Central Administrative District of Moscow paid for it. But the military press didn’t see it... Or rather, they didn’t want to see it!
I don’t know how this book fell into the hands of our unforgettable Patriarch of All Rus' Alexy II. After reading it, he once, as I was told, in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in front of an audience of more than a thousand, raised this collection above his head and said: “This book is needed not only by every military commander, but also by a young man who passionately loves his Fatherland.”
I was incredibly surprised and delighted: the Patriarch, not a military man, turned out to be smarter than many of our generals and marshals. He realized that this collection teaches better than all our academies: it is much easier to defeat the enemy with your mind. But our officers and generals did not understand this during the four-year war. And for almost 70 years they have been unable or unwilling to understand simple things. Is this why the Ministry of Defense did not find 500 thousand rubles to publish 5 thousand copies of my book for its officers?
I have always believed and continue to believe: any commander from sergeant to marshal must and must constantly think not only about how to defeat the enemy, but also about how to preserve and protect the lives of his subordinates.
This is what our commander Sidor Artemovich Kovpak and his commissar Semyon Vasilyevich Rudnev always acted and taught us. This is what I did myself, no matter what unpredictable troubles I found myself in. That is why the Nazi command was forced to send more than two hundred and fifty thousand punitive forces (25 selected divisions) to destroy one and a half to two thousand Kovpakovites, but was never able to destroy them!
The war found me at 4.00 on June 22, 1941 on the western border, at the 13th outpost of the 97th border detachment. A total of sixty soldiers fought with an entire enemy regiment and died in an unequal battle. Having miraculously survived, I was sent to Kiev, to the 4th Red Banner Motorized Rifle Regiment named after Dzerzhinsky of the NKVD of the USSR, guarding the Ukrainian government. I was appointed commander of the regiment's communications company. With this regiment I defended the capital of Ukraine for two months.
He ended up with him in the notorious Kiev encirclement. By order of the command of the Southwestern Front, the regiment, together with other border units, was supposed to ensure the breakthrough of the 21st, 5th, 37th, 26th and 38th armies from the enemy encirclement. We secured a breakthrough, but we ourselves found ourselves on enemy-occupied land. The 4th regiment, or rather its two battalions with all services (the 3rd battalion led members of the Central Committee of the Party and the Ukrainian government out of encirclement), was almost entirely shot by the Nazis in an ambush on September 30 while crossing the Trubezh River at the Baryshevka station. And here death passed me by. Even the German shell that fell at my feet for some reason did not explode.
Only four of us were left alive then. And I, as a senior in rank, felt that in the extreme situation that arose I was responsible for the lives of my comrades in misfortune.
Finding ourselves surrounded by the enemy, we decided to get to the front line and join up with our army. We were not taught how to do this. While we were making our way to the front line on foot, the Nazis detained us five times and tried to shoot us four times. But every time we managed to get away from them.
The first time the Germans captured me and three fellow soldiers in an open field, on the road, near the village of Voronki, Novo-Basansky district, Chernigov region. We were heading northeast, towards the front. An ordinary Russian lorry was moving towards us. Having pulled up close to us, the driver braked sharply. An officer jumped out of the cab and, pointing a machine gun at my chest, threateningly commanded:
“Halt!.. Partisan?!”
“No, we are from this village,” I answered.
“Schnell, get in the car!”
I had to obey. There were four more machine gunners in the back. It’s good that this officer turned out to be a mug and didn’t search us, otherwise the four of us would have been stuck on this road forever. In the right pocket of my pants there was a TT pistol with two magazines for it, and in the left there were another three dozen rounds of ammunition.
About two hours later, the whole four were brought to Darnitsa, near Kyiv, to the open gate of some long concrete fence and pushed past the guard behind the fence. So in the evening we ended up in the Darnitsky death camp. It was surrounded by a three-meter concrete wall, along the top of which ran a meter-long barbed wire fence. Along it, every 25-30 meters there were machine gun towers with searchlights. Having looked around the camp, I thought in despair: “It seems that we won’t get out of this mousetrap alive.” But after talking with the inhabitants of the camp, we learned that some of these doomed prisoners independently went to work as servants for the pilot officers who lived on the opposite side of the street. Then I had an adventurous idea: “Should I try to get out of this concrete trap under the guise of such a “servant”? Moreover, I spoke German.
In the morning, when the prisoners of war were taken to the construction of bridges blown up by our regiment during the retreat on the Dnieper, I and three fellow travelers got out of the lice-filled barracks and moved towards the exit. To do this, we had to go through four guarded posts. At each of them, I repeated the same phrase to the sentries: “Vir Gehen Arbeiten Tsum Ofitsir” (“We are going to work for the officer”). And calmly, with a smile on our faces, we left. And they walked away from death itself.
Having escaped from the Darnitsa mousetrap, we again moved east, towards the front line. A few days later, in one of the villages in the Chernihiv region, where we stopped for a snack, my fellow travelers broke away from me. Left alone, I decided to part with the TT pistol: I didn’t want to risk my life again during a search. But first, this was already in the Sumy region, I managed to use this pistol to finish off two policemen who were trying to detain me and send me to the Konotop prisoner of war camp.
However, it was never possible to reach the front line. But I was lucky in another way: in the Sumy region I picked up the trail of one elusive partisan raiding detachment, and then caught up with it. It was commanded by two wise and brave people, two participants in the civil war: Sidor Artemovich Kovpak, who later became a major general and twice Hero of the Soviet Union, and Semyon Vasilyevich Rudnev, who also became a major general and Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). Six months later, a third equally talented and enterprising person came to this detachment, which had grown into a large raid formation, from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army - Pyotr Petrovich Vershigora, who also later became a Hero of the Soviet Union and received the rank of major general.
I continued to fight in this partisan formation until the end of 1944. Over the course of three years of war in enemy-occupied territory, commanding first a company, then a battalion, and then a regiment, I personally had the opportunity to conduct 111 major battles. And in all these battles we managed to destroy the enemy with almost no losses on our part. Accurate and timely reconnaissance of the enemy, partisan ingenuity and Her Majesty the terrain always helped! In war, she is the main assistant, sometimes more important than tanks and guns. You just need to be able to correctly evaluate and use it, subordinating it to a combat mission.
Thus, in the summer of 1943, during a swift raid into the Carpathians, a partisan unit, blowing up bridges on railways and highways, first paralyzed the Kovel - Korosten - Kyiv and Lvov - Korosten - Kyiv railways. Then, on the night of July 7, on the second day of the German counter-offensive on Orel and Kursk, by blowing up two bridges, we disabled the main dual artery Lviv - Ternopil - Shepetivka - Kyiv and Lviv - Ternopil - Proskurov - Vinnitsa. A thousand kilometers from the front line, they managed to stop half a thousand fascist “tigers” and “panthers” hurrying towards Orel and Kursk. Then we also diverted the fifty-thousandth army with tanks, artillery and aviation of General Kruger, which was thrown, to the detriment of the front, to destroy the Kovpaks.
Having more than forty times superiority in forces and means, the punitive forces launched furious attacks, trying to destroy us before we reached the Drohobych oil fields. The Germans delivered the main blow from the direction of the regional center of Nadvirnaya, along the highway and the Bystritsa-Nadvirnyanskaya river on the villages of Pasechnaya and Zelena. Here three motorized SS regiments (4th, 6th, and 26th) advanced with tanks and artillery. The smallest force, only two hundred fighters, the Korolevsky detachment (4th battalion), which I was then already commanding, was ordered to stop this force of more than ten thousand.
Having weighed the balance of forces, and it was approximately one to fifty in favor of the enemy, that is, for each partisan there were fifty selected soldiers of General Kruger, not counting tanks and guns, I realized: I cannot be stopped by ordinary, classical army defense with two hundred fighters three regiments with tanks supported by artillery, and maybe aviation.
I had to come up with something else... But what exactly? Having once again carefully examined the narrow mountain gorge, stretching from Pasechnaya to Zelena for almost five kilometers, I was suddenly glad: the terrain itself will help us stop them. To do this, you just need to blow up four bridges on the Bystritsa-Nadvornyanskaya River on the approach to the mountain gorge. Then the punitive forces will not be able to use their equipment and motorized infantry against us. The enemy can be destroyed in marching columns.
And so they did. At night all the bridges were blown up. And in the morning, General Kruger’s regiments went on the offensive without tanks, on foot, in marching columns, not knowing where we would meet them. And we waited for them calmly, sitting in stone shelters.
We shot the first enemy column of more than an infantry battalion in a quarter of an hour. The punishers did not have time to fire a single return shot. When the fire ceased, I quietly withdrew my men a kilometer and a half deep into the gorge, to a new line, leaving observers to monitor the enemy’s actions.
It took the Nazis about five hours to remove the corpses and wounded. We also shot the next battalion marching column in a quarter of an hour, after which I again withdrew my mini-companies, which had only sixty soldiers, a kilometer and a half deep into the gorge. More than twice a day, the Germans did not have time to repeat the offensive. This went on for three days.
I set up the last ambush for the punishers again at the first line, which they did not expect. Therefore, again we shot the Nazis in the marching column. In three days, with the help of “wandering ambushes” (as I mentally dubbed my new tactical maneuver), I managed to destroy the enemy in marching formation without much difficulty. Seven enemy battalions met their death there. We didn't lose a single person. And accurate and continuous reconnaissance of the enemy’s forces and means, as well as Her Majesty’s terrain, helped us in this! It was both a great find and a brilliant victory!
Three months later, at the beginning of the famous Polish raid, already commanding the Shalyginsky detachment (3rd battalion), I suddenly received an unusual task: on February 3, 1944, go with the battalion to the area of the city of Brody and paralyze the actively operating Lviv-Kyiv railway. The task, as it seemed to me at first, was simple: to get closer to the “piece of iron” and install eight fifty-kilogram landmines with delayed-action fuses on the stretch between the Dubno-Brody stations...
In reality it turned out to be completely different. While my battalion and I were traveling along thawed and destroyed roads by Bandera from the west to Brody, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front approached them from the east. They were stopped on the approaches to the city of Dubno by some tank army that arrived from the reserve of Hitler's headquarters.
Stopping on the morning of February 6 at the Buda farm, I suddenly learned from the returning scouts that we were in the location of this same German tank army, right in its tactical defense zone. All the villages and farmsteads around, even individual buildings, are occupied by German tanks and artillery. This farm was not occupied only because it was located in the forest, on a steep hill, which German equipment could not climb. And also because this farm was handed over by the Germans to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). That is why in the morning our battalion on the march was not touched by German aerial reconnaissance, mistaking it for “our own.”
If the command of Hitler's tank army knew that they had almost three hundred well-armed soldiers with a cannon, mortars and 500 kilograms of explosives, they would certainly have tried to destroy us immediately. Then I would not have completed the task. I had only one way out - to become “invisible”. But three hundred people with a convoy is not three people. It's not so easy for them to hide.
Although, if you skillfully use the terrain, weather and time of day, even an entire battalion can become “invisible”. And we managed to do it! Strictly observing camouflage, in two nights we installed eight fifty-kilogram landmines with delayed-action fuses on the railway between the Dubno and Brody stations. With the help of an ambush on the Leszniów-Brody highway at dawn on February 8, our soldiers destroyed the engineering reconnaissance of the Nazi tank army in the amount of 24 people, thereby sowing panic in the enemy camp.
For the successful completion of this sabotage mission, the command of the formation awarded me the next military rank of “major” and after the reorganization of the formation into the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division named after twice Hero of the Soviet Union S.A. Kovpak, they appointed me commander of the 3rd regiment.
During the same Polish raid, while commanding a regiment, I, as a rule, had to conduct independent battles. For example, on February 26, with the help of ambushes, only one company, in which there were only sixty soldiers, managed to shoot in fifteen minutes from an ambush near the Polish village of Wieprzec a full-blooded regiment of SS men, who were following a marching column from the city of Zamosc to this village. The company had no losses. The punishers were so frightened that they put up signs on all the roads, like the ones put up by the miners of all the armies of the world, warning their troops about the special, deadly danger “Forzichtig, Kolpak!” (“Careful, Kovpak!”) And a week later, on March 6, finding ourselves again in the enemy ring, we again managed to shoot from an ambush two more full-blooded Nazi regiments. One is near the same village of Wieprzec, and the other is near the village of Zarzecze. The partisans had no losses.
Having escaped from this seemingly hopeless trap, the partisan division, pursued by punitive forces, rushed north. On March 8, on the march, the division commander stopped me and said in a friendly manner: “Namesake, stay in the village of Zdzilowice for a day and detain the Fritz. Otherwise, we won’t be able to tear ourselves away from them. You will catch up with us in the village of Zakshev.”
Zdzilowice, a large, beautiful village, was located in a ravine. From the east it was bordered by forest. From the west - an open ridge with deep ravines. As always, having carried out reconnaissance of the area with my battalion commanders, I realized: it was necessary to meet uninvited guests not on the outskirts of the village, hidden in a ravine, but on the approaches to it. On the east side - at the edge of the forest. From the west - on the ridge. And only from an ambush. In the evening, when the regiment had already lined up for the march, the scouts reported: several tanks and about a hundred trucks with infantry were moving towards the village from the town of Yanov. The equipment stalled in the ravines. The infantry landed and moved towards the village. We decided to act so that the Germans would not get on our tail.
Andrei Tsymbal and his battalion met them with heavy fire from trenches dug in the morning along the ridge, about three hundred meters from the village. The SS men advanced in three dense battalion chains at intervals of fifteen to twenty steps. It was already dark. And the Nazis, apparently for cheerfulness, illuminated the area with rockets. This is how they helped Andrei Kalinovich shoot them.
Tsymbal, a former border guard, a master of close combat, took the first chain ten steps forward and, with the flash of another series of enemy missiles, hit the dense enemy ranks with machine guns and machine guns. Three chains lay down and did not rise again. The battalion had no losses. After this extremely short, almost minute-long battle, I was sure: now the SS regiment would not pursue us. And after this fleeting night battle, I finally understood: the best and most effective type of partisan defense is an ambush.
For successful military operations during the raid of the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division named after twice Hero of the Soviet Union S.A. Kovpak to Poland, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 7, 1944, I was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In July of the same year, during Operation Bagration (the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders by the Red Army), following the instructions of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, we had to assist the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front in the speedy encirclement and destruction of Nazi Army Group “Center” .
Rapidly advancing ahead of the mobile group of General Pliev, the partisan division, with sudden ambushes and raids, almost without losses on its part, destroyed the columns of the retreating “conquerors” and captured a lot of weapons and ammunition.
And on July 3, at dawn, near the town of Turets, my 3rd regiment during the march managed to destroy nine marching battalions in a rye field and capture a howitzer regiment that was part of General Groppe’s group. In a word, that morning we “covered” a full-blooded division abandoned by the Fuhrer to save the encircled Minsk group.
In the next ambush, we managed to destroy 10 tanks, five armored cars, 36 vehicles with infantry and ammunition, as well as about 800 enemy soldiers and officers.
For this desperate, very effective partisan operation, the command of the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division again nominated me for the highest state award. This is what the division commander, Major General P.P. Vershigora, wrote on the award list:
“... For skillful command of the regiment in combat operations and the personal courage and heroism shown, giving the right to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, comrade. Braiko deserves a second Gold Star medal.
But someone’s envy and unscrupulousness turned out to be more significant than the contribution that the 3rd Regiment made to the encirclement and destruction of Hitler’s Army Group Center during Operation Bagration. For this last, seventh and most effective raid, carried out on the instructions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief himself, the Kovpakov men were not even thanked. Although the command presented 750 people who distinguished themselves in battle for awards.
Having walked the roads of the front-line years, I could not think that the most severe test awaited me yet. After the end of the war, two opportunistic monsters, two vile and real enemies from the security agencies - Pigida and Ryumin - out of envy and short-sightedness, fabricated a slanderous accusation against me. I was arrested. For nine months I was bullied and tortured. Then, by decision of the so-called Special Meeting (OSO) under Article 58-10 of Part 1, they were sent to the Beria camp for 10 years to slowly die.
True, in August 1953, after Stalin’s death, I was released and then completely rehabilitated. But life and career were ruined.
However, even after all these trials, I still managed to do a lot of good for the Fatherland. I managed to once again graduate from the M.V. Frunze Military Academy, or rather restore my knowledge, knocked out of my head by Beria’s investigators.
I managed to command the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Kazakh SSR and prove in practice that, if desired, it is possible to easily and quickly, within one month, eliminate “hazing” in the army and restore normal statutory life.
In 1962, despite my advanced age—I was already forty-four years old—I managed to pass the competition and enter the Gorky Literary Institute. And after graduating from university, together with his wife Oksana Kalinenko, who also graduated from this institute, he began to engage in literary work.
It was truly joyful and inspired work! We managed to publish fourteen documentary and fiction books. Three of which, in 1976 and 1982, were translated into Polish and published in the Polish People's Republic, where they were recognized as the best books of the year. In them we talked about the unparalleled patriotism and courage of the Soviet and Polish peoples during the years of the great battle against fascism.
But I am especially glad that we managed to create a two-volume scientific monograph “Guerilla Warfare.” This is a completely new “Science of defeating” any enemy, even the most powerful and many times superior in technology, with minimal forces and means.”
Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Russian Federation Georgy Georgievich Bystritsky: “I am a happy person”
The author of these memoirs received the highest award of the Motherland for exploits accomplished during the Great Patriotic War more than 50 years after its end...
“Together with my classmates from Krasnodar Secondary School No. 46, I kicked the ball around in vacant lots, and sometimes got mischievous in class, but, really, not all of them. He loved mathematics and physics. It seemed to me that everything would continue like this: I would graduate from school, go to work at a factory, then serve in the army...
But June 22, 1941 came, and the war began. Although Krasnodar was far from the front line, fascist planes often appeared over our city. Several times, instead of taking refuge in basements, we watched enemy bombers bombing industrial facilities and residential areas. For which we received not only reprimands from the local police officer, but also our ears. He twisted them to a crimson hue, but we were not offended and asked not to hand us over to our parents.
The war approached Krasnodar in early August 1942.
The Nazis captured Rostov-on-Don for the second time and rushed to Stalingrad and the Caucasus. Evacuation began in Kuban as well. I, like many other seventeen-year-old Krasnodar boys who were not subject to conscription into the Red Army, were sent to the rear. We ended up in the Urals, in Magnitogorsk, where we became students of a factory school (FZU).
It was here that my friend from Armavir, Dimka Suprunov, and I made a decision: we have nothing to do in the rear, our place is at the front. They ran away from school. At the Magnitogorsk railway station we boarded a passenger train heading to the West. At one of the stations, when checking documents, transport police officers removed the fugitives from the train and, together with other similar “heroes”, sent them back to Magnitogorsk, accompanied by a policeman.
Upon arrival at the FZU, we received a corresponding suggestion from the director. He explained that there is a war going on now and for leaving defense enterprises without authorization, which we have already done (and our federal training center trained personnel specifically for them), we can be prosecuted as deserters and instead of the front we will end up in a camp. The director, of course, did not do this, but we realized that we would not go to the front without permission and changed our tactics. A few days later, Dimka and I went to the military registration and enlistment office, where we said that if we were not sent to the front, we would make our way there on our own.
After a conversation, during which it became clear that Dimka and I belonged to non-union youth, the military registration and enlistment office employee said: “Yes, I see, you guys are fighting men, but only Komsomol members are taken as volunteers to the front.”
Very soon, almost within two or three weeks, we joined the Komsomol and received membership cards. And then, on the advice of older comrades, they added two years to the age.
Now, as members of the Komsomol, we arrived at the military registration and enlistment office and found ourselves with another employee. He, after listening to us, said that since you are Komsomol members, we will send you as volunteers to the front. And a few days later, Dimka and I were already on our way to a training artillery regiment.
After graduating from the training unit, and many adults and family men studied there, most were awarded the military rank of “junior sergeant.” But several graduates, including me, were given the rank of sergeant.
Then they were sent to the 18th separate anti-tank brigade of the reserve of the High Command. From June 1943, he participated in combat operations as a gunner, and after some time as a crew commander of a 76-mm anti-tank gun. The brigade consisted of three artillery regiments and was constantly transferred from place to place, sometimes from front to front. By order of the front commander, she took part in combat operations both in defense and in the offensive - in the direction of the main attack.
In the battery they nicknamed me “Kuban Cossack”, since the rest of the fighters were from other places. I did a good job as a gunner. In the first battle, he knocked out a heavy fascist tank from among the Tigers, which the battery had never encountered before. The gun commander was very pleased with me.
In the summer of 1943, during one of the battles, the commander of the gun was killed, but we were not at a loss. It turned out that, being a gunner, I took over the responsibilities of the deceased commander, although at that time I was just over 18 years old. I remember that battle well; we repulsed three powerful enemy attacks. For this battle I received my first award - the Order of the Red Star. I was appointed gun commander. Now I was responsible not only for myself, but also for the entire calculation.
I’ll be honest: many soldiers, and even commanders, at first did not pay due attention to arranging the position, camouflaging the guns and crew, did not like to dig in, and therefore they and their subordinates often died.
I think that I stayed alive and saved my gun crew largely due to the fact that I strictly complied with the requirements of the science received in the training artillery regiment. We were constantly told: arrange a position, camouflage it, skillfully use the terrain, any available means; if possible, equip a dugout, another shelter for the crew, and then you can do other things.
Sometimes subordinates, and in the calculation there were fighters much older than me, in response to my demands they grumbled and made proposals to do something simpler, they say, it will do. But after the first battles, they began to understand: if you want to destroy the enemy and survive yourself, then take a shovel, an ax and equip the position as required by the regulations, and not in a simpler and easier way.
The battles in the Baltics are memorable. In December 1944, while liberating Riga, our crew destroyed several firing points and a lot of enemy personnel.
In January 1945, fierce battles took place near the Latvian village with the beautiful name “Ilena,” where attacks by units of the Latvian Corps could not succeed.
A few words about the Latvian Corps itself. I think it will be interesting for young people, as well as for people of the older generation.
After the Nazi attack on the USSR, hundreds of thousands of people in one impulse went to defend their Motherland. And then not only units of the people’s militia began to form, but also military formations from residents of the regions, for example, the Don and Kuban Cossack divisions, national formations in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and other national republics. So, the Latvian Corps, created from residents of the Latvian SSR, also fought very well.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Latvian nationalists, like other nationalists in the Baltic states, spoke a lot about the so-called “Soviet occupation” of these states. I can personally testify that the fighters of the Latvian Corps were exclusively volunteers. People who, out of their own conviction, and not because of someone else’s coercion, went to fight the fascists and defend Latvia.
We, the artillerymen, went on the next attack together with the infantrymen of the Latvian Corps. They moved in infantry battle formations, the guns rolled under their own power, periodically stopped and opened fire on the enemy. The Nazis met us not only with artillery fire, but also with air bombardment. They damaged the gun and killed the entire crew; only I survived, having received a slight wound.
When I came to my senses a little, I saw that the Germans had launched a counterattack. However, for fear of destroying their own, they suddenly stopped firing from guns and bombing from the air. Then I took a light machine gun and, changing positions, repelled several counterattacks, but was wounded again. For the battle near Ilena I was awarded the Order of Glory, 3rd degree.
Many years later, when my comrades from the Krasnodar Regional Council of Veterans of Internal Affairs Bodies and Internal Troops began to seek to award me the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, I learned that in the archives there was an award sheet indicating the results of my participation in the battle of Ilena. It said: “... senior sergeant Bystritsky, using the light machine gun of a deceased comrade, skillfully, changing positions, repelled 7 counterattacks, disabled 4 enemy machine gun crews and destroyed up to 18 Nazis.” After the medical battalion, I returned to my battery, which was soon transferred to Germany along with other units of our brigade.
My calculations became Ukrainian, or rather Western Ukrainian. The replenishment that came to the battery after the fighting in Latvia came from the liberated areas of Western Ukraine. At first, there was a certain wariness on the part of the newcomers. People from Western Ukrainian villages, ordinary peasants, did not go anywhere further than their village and suddenly found themselves at war. We, the old-timers, knowing about the atrocities of Bandera’s followers, also looked closely at the “young people”.
They, some with primary education and some without it, who did not understand Russian speech very well, needed help and support. I took care of them and they helped me. That's how they fought. I must emphasize that peasant ingenuity and diligence helped these guys become good soldiers. My crew showed itself very well in the February battles in Germany. We knocked out several tanks and armored personnel carriers. After which the enemy turned back. But the most important thing: there were no losses in my calculation.
I was then awarded the Order of Glory, 2nd degree, and my subordinates, Ukrainian brothers, were awarded the Order of Glory, 3rd degree. An army newspaper correspondent arrived at the position with a representative of the regiment headquarters. Since then, I have kept two small photographs that show me and my gun crew.
At the beginning of April 1945, our 669th fighter anti-tank artillery regiment as part of a brigade moved from Germany to Czechoslovakia.
For participation in hostilities on the North-Western Front, the brigade received the honorary name “Dvinskaya”. For the liberation of Latvia, the unit was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and after the battles in Czechoslovakia - the Order of Kutuzov, 2nd degree.
Upon arrival in the area of the city of Opava, we found ourselves in the direction of the main attack... The battles near Opava took place from April 15 to 25 and were among the most brutal and bloody in Czechoslovakia.
While we were fighting on the ground, fate was kind to us. When we captured one of the small high-rise buildings, we moved the gun to a convenient position in our hands and, from a distance of 200-250 meters, destroyed two anti-tank guns, six machine guns and about twenty Nazis. This came as a complete surprise to the Germans.
On April 17, we fought street battles in the town of Oldřichov, an important enemy stronghold on the approaches to Opava. The Germans turned every house, every stone building into real fortresses. During the next movement, the gun crew and infantrymen from the cover came under crossfire from enemy machine gunners. During the shootout, some of the fascists were destroyed, but all my subordinates were also put out of action. I was left alone again. Three fascists, after the end of the firefight, moved in my direction, towards the gun. I successfully threw a grenade and destroyed them. Without having time to look around, a Ferdinand self-propelled gun appeared at the opposite end of the street. Behind him was a column of enemy armored vehicles.
At that moment I was simultaneously a carrier of shells, a loader, and a gunner. The first shot was cumulative. After a successful hit, the self-propelled gun caught fire. The second shell knocked out the second self-propelled gun. The Nazis opened heavy fire, and I received a shrapnel wound, but continued to fight back. Another salvo destroyed the third armored vehicle. Soon our people arrived and I was taken to the brigade hospital.
Then the captain of the medical service, Mikhail Vasilyevich Smirnov, saved him from death. Fate brought me together with him again twenty years after the war, when I completed my service in the internal troops and returned to Krasnodar. There he began working in the Department of Correctional Labor Institutions of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
My savior worked in a neighboring unit as the head of the medical department of the local police department. I remember well his words spoken back in 1945 in Czechoslovakia: “I cured Rokossovsky and, fellow countryman, I will quickly put you back on your feet.”
He kept his promise. On April 24, 1945, I was discharged early from the brigade hospital, and I arrived at my unit. Managed to take part in the battles for the liberation of Prague.
For the battles in Czechoslovakia I was awarded the Order of Lenin.
Our brigade raised six Heroes of the Soviet Union. Battalion commanders Nikolai Fedorovich Matienko and Fedor Alekseevich Sirotkin died in battle. Duchik Pavel Andreevich, Klebus Fedor Stepanovich, Materov Mikhail Mikhailovich and Putantsev V.S. remained alive. In the city of Dvinsk there are two schools named after Heroes of the Soviet Union Matienko N.F. and Sirotkina F.A. A museum of the famous brigade has been created in one of the schools.
At the end of the fighting, our unit from Czechoslovakia was transferred to the Lviv region of Ukraine, where we remained until December 1945 and participated in the liquidation of gangs of Ukrainian nationalists.
In 1947, I entered the Kaliningrad Infantry School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and already served as an officer in the internal troops, guarding and escorting convicts.
In the late 50s and early 60s of the last century, processes began to reduce the size of the armed forces. They also affected the internal troops. In 1961, with the rank of senior lieutenant, I resigned and began working as a civilian employee of the department of correctional labor institutions of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Krasnodar Territory, where for 20 years I was involved in solving production and economic issues.
At the end of the 80s, during one of the meetings with fellow soldiers, a conversation turned to unpresented awards to participants in the Great Patriotic War. And then I told about a story that happened in the winter of 1945 in Germany.
... After heavy fighting, we, together with the infantry, only captured one of the fascist defense lines in the evening. The Germans retreated and entrenched themselves at the next line. I gave the command to equip the position and camouflage it. Having appointed a military guard, he ordered the sentries to perform guard duty in turns. The infantrymen, having decided to play a prank on someone, collected several frozen corpses of the Nazis in one place and placed them near the wire fences. Helmets were placed on the heads of the dead, and German machine guns were hung on their chests.
At night, having lost his route, an officer found himself on the front line, accompanied by machine gunners to the headquarters of our artillery regiment. In the dim light of the moon, he thought that German reconnaissance was coming to our rear, and gave the command to his guards to open fire “at the enemy.” Our guards also started shooting. Fortunately, none of the fighters were hurt then. However, the story became public.
The regiment commander, at the insistence of the officer who landed in the battery, discussed with the political officer the issue of transferring the materials to the military tribunal. The political officer convinced the commander that there was no need to do this, since I had military awards. In addition, the regiment commander personally wrote a proposal for awarding me the Order of Lenin.
The commander immediately demanded the award sheet and tore it up. But he did not give the order to transfer the materials to the tribunal.
In response to my story, one fellow soldier noted that the award sheet for the title of Hero was prepared back in April 1945 for the battles near Opava.
I said that I was awarded the Order of Lenin for Opava. Two years later, at another meeting with fellow soldiers, the conversation about the Golden Star came up again.
I conveyed this conversation to the chairman of the regional council of veterans of the Department of Internal Affairs and VV Tatarkin. Ivan Petrovich took him very seriously and invited Dmitry Nikolaevich Chernyaev, the former chief of staff of the Internal Affairs Directorate, to the next meeting of the council.
Chernyaev suggested sending appropriate requests and checking the accuracy of the information of my fellow soldiers. The Regional Council of Internal Affairs and Internal Troops Veterans began correspondence on this issue with various archives. My award sheet was found. It was signed by the commander of the 4th Ukrainian Front A.I. Eremenko. My friends were delighted with the first success and began to actively contact the appropriate authorities.
After some time, the answer comes that the award sheet signed by the commander was not justifiably implemented, since it is impossible to reward twice for one feat. For the battles near Opava I was awarded the Order of Lenin.
It seemed that the issue was closed. However, Chernyaev suggested checking the texts of the award sheets submitted for awarding the Order of Lenin and for conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. So what: one and the other document spoke about battles in Czechoslovakia, but about different battles, both in time and in the place where they were fought. In other words, I was nominated for awards for different fights.
I must express sincere words of gratitude to the leadership of the General Staff and the Russian Ministry of Defense, who prepared the relevant documents. And so on December 31, 1996, Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 1792 was issued “For the courage and heroism shown in the fight against the German invaders in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, retired senior lieutenant of the internal service Georgiy Georgievich Bystritsky is awarded the title “Hero of the Russian Federation” .
I am a happy person, I spent almost two years on the front line, took part in the hardest battles and survived. After the war, he not only graduated from military school and became an officer, but also started a family. Unfortunately, my wife has been dead for a long time, but I have wonderful children - a daughter and a son. (By the way, the son became a professional military man and received the rank of colonel).
The years of my service in the internal troops and work in the ITU of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Krasnodar Territory were successful. And today many of my comrades who served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs are still alive. We still have the opportunity to work in a veterans’ organization and help our native ministry.”
Biographical information:
Georgy Bystritsky was born on May 2, 1925 in the village of Ladozhskaya, Krasnodar Territory.
In the army - since January 1943. At the front - since 1943. Gun commander.
The war ended in May 1945. Wounded twice.
The title of Hero of the Russian Federation was awarded on December 31, 1996.
Awarded the Orders of Lenin and GloryIIAndIIIdegrees, Patriotic WarIIdegree, Red Star, medal "For Courage", other state, departmental and public medals.
Magadan
Hero of the Soviet Union Guard Lieutenant Pyotr Mikhailovich Stratiychuk
Pyotr Kosolapov, police lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Magadan Region, talks about his grandfather. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 17, 1943, for the courage, courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders, Guard Lieutenant Pyotr Mikhailovich Stratiychuk was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
On the eve of the 71st anniversary of the Victory, I want to talk about a participant in the Great Patriotic War, about the Hero of the Soviet Union, who is my grandfather.
Pyotr Mikhailovich Stratiychuk was born on February 10, 1923 in the village. Kursavka of the Andropov district of the Stavropol Territory in a peasant family. After receiving primary education, he worked in the construction and installation department.
He served in the army since August 1942. In 1943, Pyotr Mikhailovich graduated from the Makhachkala Military Infantry School. He took part in the battles to liberate the Krasnodar Territory, break through enemy defenses on the Blue Line, and liberate the Taman Peninsula. On July 1, 1943, during the liberation of the Krymsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the guard company of Lieutenant Stratiychuk attacked height 114.0. Having burst into the enemy trenches, she destroyed 60 fascists in hand-to-hand combat.
After the liberation of the Taman Peninsula, battles for Crimea began. My grandfather especially distinguished himself during the Kerch-Eltigen operation. On the night of November 3, 1943, the commander of the 3rd company of the 1st Guards Rifle Regiment of the 2nd Guards Rifle Division of the 56th Army of the North Caucasus Front Guard, Lieutenant Pyotr Stratiychuk, at the head of an assault group on ships of the Azov military flotilla, crossed the river during a strong storm. Kerch Strait and landed in the area of the village. Zhukovka.
Without allowing the enemy to come to his senses, the group knocked him out of the village and, without stopping, attacked the village. Mayak (now the village of Podmayachny within the city of Kerch). Together with the second assault group that arrived in time, attacking the village from the rear, he captured the village. Having discovered the location of the enemy battery, the group commander with two machine gunners secretly crawled to the enemy’s firing position and, having destroyed the artillery servants, captured three 105-mm guns.
In fierce battles, the group destroyed 70 Nazis, captured five light and three heavy machine guns, an artillery battery and a lot of ammunition. My grandfather personally destroyed 17 fascists. However, on November 10, 1943, he was killed in action.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 17, 1943, for the courage, courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders, Guard Lieutenant Pyotr Mikhailovich Stratiychuk was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In the village of Kursavka, a street and a school are named after the Hero, near the building of which his bust is installed.
We, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Pyotr Mikhailovich, sacredly honor the memory of the Hero, passing on from generation to generation the story of his life, talking about his exploits. I am proud to be named after my brave grandfather.
On June 24, 1945, the historic Victory Parade took place, at which he became the standard bearer from the Artillery Academy.
Commander of the artillery battery of the 271st Infantry Regiment (181st Infantry Division, 13th Army, Central Front). He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, the Red Star, many medals, as well as the US military award - the Silver Star.
Alexey Voloshin was born on February 13, 1920 in the Tambov region. Member of the CPSU(b)/CPSU since 1943. In the Red Army as a volunteer since July 1941. In April 1942 - commander of a battery control platoon of the 1104th artillery regiment of the 62nd Army. Then Voloshin was appointed battery commander, and the regiment was transferred to the 64th Army. In July 1942, he knocked out the first enemy tank. Soon the officer was sent to the 10th division of the NKVD troops, which was stationed in Stalingrad. The personnel of the NKVD formation were thrown into the most dangerous areas of defense.
On January 16, 1943, after being wounded, Alexey was discharged and sent back to the 10th division of the NKVD troops, to the same 271st rifle regiment. In February, our troops were transferred to Yelets, and from there to Sevsk. There the Germans drove the 15th Cavalry Corps of the Red Army into a “cauldron”. Providing artillery support to the 271st Infantry Regiment, the battery under the command of Alexei Voloshin destroyed three fascist tanks. That battle was the beginning of great success for the 10th Division.
Alexey Voloshin was presented with the Order of Lenin. After the defeat of the Germans on the Kursk Bulge, the 13th Army of Lieutenant General A.P. Pukhov rapidly advanced in the direction of Sumy, Konotop, Borzna, and Chernigov. On the morning of September 18, 1943, the 271st Infantry Regiment was the first to approach the Desna and, crossing it on the move, captured a bridgehead on the right bank south of Chernigov. Following the regiment, the entire 181st Stalingrad Division of the NKVD troops (formerly the 10th Rifle Division of the NKVD troops) crossed to the right bank. On September 28, Manstein’s famous counterattack took place against the troops of the left wing of the Central Front. In one day, Voloshin’s battery knocked out 11 tanks, including two Tigers.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated October 16, 1943, senior lieutenant Alexey Prokhorovich Voloshin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 2429).
In 1944, US President Roosevelt decided to award his country's highest military officer award, the Silver Star, to four Soviet junior officers who distinguished themselves in battles against Hitler's Wehrmacht and had previously been nominated for the Soviet Gold Star. The officers represented different types of ground troops. The decree of the US President was signed on July 12, 1944, and the awarding took place in October 1944 in the Kremlin. In the Sverdlovsk Hall, the “Silver Star” was presented to Soviet officers by the representative of the American President Hopkins, US Ambassador Harriman and the military attache, as well as the representative of the Soviet side - Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Gorkin.
On June 24, 1945, the historic Victory Parade took place, at which Alexey Voloshin became the standard bearer from the Artillery Academy. At the end of it, Alexey Prokhorovich served in the General Staff. In 1963, he graduated from higher academic courses. After that, he worked at the Main Rocket and Artillery Directorate, from where he was transferred to the reserve in 1975 with the rank of colonel. From 1976 to 1985 he headed the Moscow city shooting and sports club DOSAAF. He retired in 1985. Lives in Moscow.
