Before Peter the Great, units of the Russian army were usually called by the names of commanders, for example, the regiment of Yefim Gulitsa or the division of Prince Repnin. In 1708, the regiments began to be called by location or formation, so the regiments appeared Preobrazhensky and Butyrsky, Moscow and Absheron (formed during the war with Persia on the Absheron peninsula, in the city of the Holy Cross, now Budennovsk). In addition, the regiments were assigned the names of their bosses - often foreign persons of royal blood.For example, the name of one of the cavalry regiments of the Russian army changed - it was formed in 1705 in Belgorod, as the “Dragoon Ivan Pestov Regiment”, then became known as Narva Dragoon, and after a series of renames, approached the First World War under the name “13 Hussar” Narva, His Majesty the Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia William II ”, in which my grandfather served. The irony of fate: the regiment's chief was Kaiser Wilhelm, against whom the hussars who were then quartered in the Kingdom of Poland, in the city of Sedlec, were among the first to fight.
The “literary” fate of the regiment is interesting, if I may say so: in 1870 – 1880, Alexander Pushkin, the son of the poet, commanded the Narva hussars in Narva, and the Hussar in the White Guard was led by “Belgrade” - such a regiment in the Russian army was not, but the link to the place of the first formation of the regiment - Belgorod is clearly visible.
In 1918, the depleted regiment was relegated to Tambov, where it was reorganized into the Narva guerrilla Krasnogusar detachment, which, as part of various units of the Red Army, passed the Civil War on the Eastern and Western fronts.
The regiment went through a glorious military path - but how was the memory of this path preserved? Almost nothing - only brass ribbon was attached to hussar caps, a badge of distinction for the Turkish war 1877 – 1878 of the year, when the regiment was commanded by A.A. Pushkin.
Among the differences assigned to the regiments were banners, pipes with St. George ribbons, drums, and red cuffs on boots — as a sign that the regiment stood knee-deep in its blood.
Until the very 1917 of the year, the Life Guards of the Pavlovsky regiment wore grenadier copper hats in parades with the names of those who were in them in the battle of Friedland in the year of 1808.
But who knew and who could see these signs of military valor, this memory of the heroism of their ancestors? Only employees in these regiments and a small part of historians and military.
Everyone knows, for example, the famous Russian waltz “On the hills of Manchuria”. But few people know its full name - "Moksha Regiment on the hills of Manchuria." The melody became a unique musical distinction - but who knows why the regiment is called Mokshansky, and where exactly he fought, what land he watered with his blood, having lost 5 / 6 defenses of its composition in ten days, but not retreating?
A new era began after the revolution. For special merit, courage and heroism, the Revolutionary Military Council began to assign military units to military units and units named after cities, large settlements, rivers, mountain ranges, provinces (provinces), etc., associated with certain battles or battles. which distinguished one or other parts and compounds ... ".
First, in April 1919, the military honorary names “Turkestan” units of the Turkestan army, fighting with the Basmachs in Central Asia, were received - the plot of the film “White Sun of the Desert” was not invented. Then the honorary military names "Kuban" in December 1919 of the year and "Chongarskie", "North-Donetsk", "Rostovskie", "Crimean" and others in 1921 appeared.
The first military honorary names in the Great Patriotic War were "Don", "Zimovnikovskie", "Kantemirovsky", "Kotelnikovsky", "Stalingrad" and "Tatsinskie", assigned to parts distinguished themselves in battles in January 1943.
And these intangible insignia turned out to be much more efficient and more convenient than the cuffs, puffs, pipes and drums.
HOW TO DESTROY MEMORY
Recently, in Kiev, they painted with colors and threw down a monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya - the Ukrainian Nazis continued the work of the Nazis. And before that, the Bandera government demolished a monument to the legendary partisan general Sidor Kovpak and the Nazis outraged his grave.
But this, if I may say so, is “individual terror”, an attempt to kill the memory of individual personalities. And last year, Poroshenko switched to “mass terror”, renamed the entire Ukrainian army, excluding from the names of military units everything related to the war against fascism and the places where the Red Army soldiers fought and won.
The Leningrad Order of Kutuzov rocket artillery regiment became just a numbered artillery regiment.
24-I separate mechanized Samara-Ulyanovsk Berdichev Iron Order of the October Revolution three times of the Order of the Red Banner of the orders of Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky division became the 24-y separate mechanized Berdichev Iron Brigade of them. Prince Daniil Galitsky.
128-I Guards Motorized Rifle Turkestan twice Red Banner Division them. Marshal of the Soviet Union A.A. Grechko became the 128-th separate Guards mountain-infantry Transcarpathian brigade.
The 50-th engineering and sapper Vinnytsia Red Banner Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Regiment became the 703-th Engineering Vinnitsa Regiment.
The 777-th Separate Automotive Prut Red Order Battalion became the 777-th separate regiment of material support.
The 121-th separate Focshano-Mukden Order of Alexander Nevsky and the Red Star communications regiment became the 121-th separate guard brigade of communications.
114th fighter aviation Tallinn Red Banner Regiment became the 114th tactical aviation brigade.
Well, and so on.
The approach is simple - to delete from the names of military units everything that recalls the exploits of the Red Army, the struggle against fascism, about Russia.
And the approach is simple-mindedly fraudulent: leave all the geographical names associated with Ukraine. There was, for example, the 17th Guards in the Soviet Army, which glorified itself in battles for Krivoy Rog tank Kryvyi Rih Red Banner Order of the Suvorov Division. Renamed it, stripping the order, into the 17th separate guards tank Krivoy Rog brigade. So, sort it out - is it a name or not, is Kryvyi Rih an honorary military name or just a place of formation? And it was formed, by the way, in the Urals, in August 1940.
The same with the 93 th guards motorized rifle Kharkov twice the Red Banner orders of the Suvorov and Kutuzov divisions, which disrupted military awards, turning into a separate Guards mechanized Kharkov brigade of 93. And this “Kharkov Brigade”, which has nothing to do with the fame and exploits of the Red Army and the liberation of Kharkov in 1943, did not have history and banner, participated in the shameful punitive operation against the DPR.
WHERE IS A VAPNYAKA
4-I Guards Vapnyarsko-Berlin Red Banner of the Order of Suvorov and Kutuzov military base is deployed today in South Ossetia, protecting and preserving the people of the republic from the danger of a new war and covering Russia from the south.
Where Berlin is located and how the workers 'and peasants' Red Army took it in 1945, everyone knows. And where is Vapnjarka, whose name even stands in front of Berlin and why are the fame and liberation of Vapnjarki equal, and the capture of Berlin? Why 164-th tank brigade (whose name and regalia took 4-I base) March 19 1944 was given the honorary name of Wapnjarskoy? Why did Moscow salute the release of Vapnyarka with twelve volleys of one hundred and twenty-four guns?
And this story began in the time of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov.
Where has placed the brilliant Russian strategist and commander of the headquarters of the army group defending the southern and western direction? Where did he write his great work "The Science of Victory"? Where did he prepare his miraculous bogatyrs for a swift and irresistible rush to Warsaw, where Polish confederates staged a “bloody matins” by attacking the Russians during the Easter service and communion and cutting out several thousand people? Traces of the Prazhki training fortress still remain, where Suvorov soldiers learned to overcome moats and storm walls.
Those who saw the famous director Pudovkin filmed before the war by order of Comrade Stalin (Stalin himself edited the script) a wonderful and historically accurate film “Suvorov” remember this headquarters among the poor huts and huts in the tiny town of Tulchin, now the district center of Vinnitsa region.
This headquarters of the southern grouping of troops was maintained even after Suvorov, and after World War 1812, and was led by war hero, Field Marshal Wittgenstein. The Northern Society of the Decembrists was located in brilliant Petersburg, the capital of the empire, and the Southern Society, the more radical, headed by Pestel, was located in Tulchin.
Pushkin came there, met with Pestel, and only by chance Tulchin did not enter the immortal stanzas of “Eugene Onegin”, but remained among the sketches for the 10 chapter of the poem.
Behind Tulchin there is the village of Timanovka - a village in which there were three museums in Soviet times: local history, art and memorial AV. Suvorov. And outside the village there are three wells - Suvorov wells dug by Russian soldiers. In 70-ies, they were lined with concrete, a stone obelisk was erected near them, and I still remember them with wooden, lined with mighty oak-hollowed out oak blocks, a wooden trough with a long handle and carved inscription: “Great-grandchildren dug out - they restored great-grandsons”.
And even further behind the wells - a nameless military town, from 1949 of the year - military unit No. 64369, school of junior aviation specialists No. 50. The town in this strategic direction was built at the very beginning of the 30-ies, and before the war there was an artillery regiment on a horse-drawn line, according to local residents. Next to the town, through the highway, a summer camp was set up and a round, brick, concrete floor dance floor was made.
My father was sent there to serve in 1949, and in childhood memories some of the houses were already in the form of ruins, where children were forbidden to walk, from the tent camp there were only overgrown grass pits - digging in the ground with earthen planks and hearth, and a tent awning , and the dance floor was split by a bomb.
The military camp was usually called Vapnyarka, after the nearby junction railway station. “Vapno” in Ukrainian, “lime”, was used to extract lime in these places, and that’s the name. The movement of trains through this station began in the 1870 year - and its strategic importance has increased further. Therefore, all wars rolled through it. Bagritsky and Kataev wrote about the battles of the Civil War, Boris Gorbatov about the battles of the Great Patriotic War. The military town was surrounded by trenches, a bridge over a tiny stream that flowed across the highway was blown up, a rusty German tank stood at the shooting range, the ground was thickly strewn with shrapnel and empty cages, German ones were flat and ours were trough.
The importance of this direction was well understood by the Germans - therefore, the battles were so fierce both in the defense and in the liberation of Vapnjarka on March 16 of the year during the Uman-Botosha operation.
The 15-I motorized rifle brigade, the 48-I, 107-I, 109-I and 164-I tank brigades for these battles and victories by Stalin’s order received the honorary title of the Wapnjarsky.
It remains to add that in Vapnyarka I studied and began working in railway workshops twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky.
A 164-th tank brigade commanded by Colonel Nikolai Veniaminovich Kopylov. In the battles for Berlin, he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and his team became Vapnyarsko-Berlin. After the war, Colonel Kopylov served another ten years in the army, and soon after leaving the reserve he moved to Abkhazia, to Sukhum, where he lived until April 12 1965.
Thus, the fate of the renowned Vapnyarsk-Berlin Tank Brigade and its legendary commander unexpectedly intertwined: the colonel sleeps forever in Abkhazia, and the heirs of his military glory protect peace and quiet in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia ...
Eternal memory to the commander, eternal glory to those who deserve and keep today a valiant name and high awards!