True to the Truth. Arnold Mary
Independent Estonia ... Peaceful sky overhead. High quality of life. Leisurely calm life: friendly passers-by, laughing children. Clean, well maintained streets. Monuments to the heroes ... SS, who fought "for the freedom and independence of the Estonian people" and was driven to the cemetery by a Bronze soldier with a bowed head ... The Nazis drove into the cemetery not only a bronze soldier. Among the victims of fascist revanchism in the Baltics there are living people, albeit deep old men, who, however, remained loyal to Pravda until the very end.Hero of the Soviet Union Arnold Konstantinovich Meri was born in Tallinn 1 July 1919, in the family of a simple employee. In 1940, he became a member of the CPSU (b) / CPSU. In 1926, the Meri family moved to Yugoslavia. Here Arnold was baptized into Orthodoxy, therefore he was called the Orthodox name Adrian. He graduated from a Russian elementary school in the city of Skopje, then became a high-school student of the 1-th Russian-Serbian gymnasium in Belgrade, from which he graduated from the 1938 year.
After the return of Mary's family to Estonia in 1938, Arnold began working as an apprentice mechanic at the F. Krull Machine Works. In 1939, he was called up for military service in the Estonian army - in the autotank regiment. After the Soviet power was established in Estonia in July 1940, at the organization meeting of the Komsomol organization A.K. Mary was elected to the first Komsomol City Committee. At the same time, on the instructions of the Central Committee of Komsomol, he headed the soldiers' bureau, whose task was to create Komsomol organizations in military units.
After the transformation of the Estonian army (autumn 1940 of the year), it became known as the 22-m territorial Estonian rifle corps of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, and Arnold Meri was sent to the corps 415-nd separate liaison battalion to become the deputy political instructor of the training company.
The battletrack of the 22 of the Estonian Territorial Rifle Corps, which was part of the North-Western Front, began in the first days of the war, with its advancement towards the city of Porkhov in the Pskov Region. In the process of concentrating parts of the corps, as well as a partial upgrade of weapons, the motorized corps of the enemy struck the first blows of the 56. The battles in the vicinity of Makhnovka and Slavkovich, which took place on July 6-10 on July 1941, caused great losses among the corps personnel. Mary hardly managed to get out of the environment and find their part. Departing from Porkhov, parts of the corps were located on the eastern bank of the Sheloni River, occupying defenses. On the morning of July 17, the corps command attempted to organize an offensive north and south of the city of Porkhov, but it did not succeed. The Nazis managed to concentrate in the vicinity of Porkhov large forces. On the evening of the same day, the 24 infantry regiment of the Nazis forced the river Shelon and developed an offensive south of the Porkhov-Bottom highway.
At this time, only A.K. Mary managed not to panic, overcoming the general mood of fear, madness. He managed to get up, blocking the way of the crowd running from the trenches. And he managed to stop the people, organize the defense and throw away the enemy. A.K. Mary did not leave the fighting post even after a shard of a mine stuck into his right hand.
After that, A.K. Mary received a second wound - a mine splinter damaged the thigh and knee. And even now, bleeding profusely, he did not allow himself to leave the battlefield. Inspired by such an example, the battalion successfully completed an unusual combat mission. Thus, the plan of the Nazis was disrupted by a breakthrough to the Porkhov-Bottom highway and the destruction of the headquarters of the 22-Rifle Corps.
For the heroism shown in the performance of the combat command of the command in the struggle against German fascism, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
In October, 1941, after undergoing treatment at the hospital, AK Meri was sent to study at the Moscow Military Engineering School. At that moment, the new Estonian national units of the Red Army were created. When Mary learned about this, he wrote a report containing a request to send him to one of these parts. At the beginning of 1942, he became a Komsomol rifle regiment, and in the fall of 1942, he became an assistant to the beginning. the political department of the 249 th Estonian page division, then got into the 8 th Estonian Tallinn Rifle Corps, where he served until the end of the war. He participated in the Velikie Luki, Narva, Nevel and Baltic strategic (Tallinn and Moonsund front) operations. He participated in the liberation of his native Tallinn from the Nazi invaders ...
Years passed ... The great country for which he fought broke up into 15 parts. The hero's favorite Estonia, Estonia, whose power in 2007 opened a criminal case against Hero, also gained independence. 20 May 2008, the trial was initiated, where the accused was Arnold Meri, a veteran of World War II, a former member of the Central Committee of the Estonian Communist Party. Hero of the Soviet Union Arnold Meri was accused of involvement in the deportations of Estonian citizens in 1949. Meanwhile, for Mary this story It was no longer the first: in August 1952, Mary was already deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and other state awards for attempting to review the affairs of a number of exiles and return them to Estonia (until 1949, Mary was headed by the republican Komsomol).
In the case of 88’s guilty plea, a seriously ill patient (partial loss of vision and hearing, lung cancer) could have been sentenced to life imprisonment! A.K. Meri never considered himself guilty, actively defended himself, and also opposed all attempts to revive fascism in Estonia. Starting from 2007, he was chairman of the Estonian Anti-Fascist Committee.
Being the last of the survivors among Estonians - Heroes of the Soviet Union, AK Mary left us 27 March 2009 of the year. He was buried in the Tallinn cemetery in Männiku, next to the resting members of his family.
Information