Sergeant Pavlov: a hero without myths
The unprecedented battle of the Volga, which became a turning point in World War II, ended 2 in February 1943 of the year victoriously. Up to the end of the battle of Stalingrad, street battles continued. They adopted a fierce character in September 1942, in the central and northern parts of the city were uninterrupted.
The battle in the city is special, the commander of the legendary 62 Army Vasiliy Chuikov later noted: “It’s not the strength that decides the issue, but skill, skill, resourcefulness and surprise. Urban buildings, like breakwaters, cut the battle formations of the advancing enemy and directed its forces along the streets. Therefore, we firmly held on to very strong buildings, created in them a few garrisons, capable in the case of the environment to conduct a circular defense. Especially strong buildings helped us to create strong points, of which the defenders of the city mowed down the advancing fascists with machine-guns and machine guns. ”
One of the strongholds, about the importance of which spoke commander-62, was a dilapidated building in the central part of the city. AT history Stalingrad battle and the whole of the Great Patriotic War, this object later entered as the house of Pavlov. Its end wall appeared on January 9 square (later Lenin). The 42-th regiment of the 13-th Guards Rifle Division, which joined the 62-th Army in September of the 1942-th (division commander Alexander Rodimtsev), acted on this line. The four-story brick building occupied an important place in the defense system of Rodimtsev's guards on the approaches to the Volga, because from there the entire surrounding area was controlled. It was possible to observe and bombard the part of the city occupied by that time by the enemy: to the west up to one kilometer, to the north and south - and even more. But the main thing was that the ways of the possible breakthrough of the Germans to the Volga were looked through; Intense fighting here lasted more than two months.
The tactical value of the house was estimated by the commander of the 42 Guards Rifle Regiment Colonel Ivan Yelin. He ordered the commander of the 3 Infantry Battalion, Captain Zhukov, to seize the house and turn it into a stronghold. 20 September 1942 of the year, fighters of the squadron headed by Sergeant Pavlov made their way there. And on the third day, reinforcements arrived: machine-gun platoon of Lieutenant Afanasyev (seven people with one heavy machine gun), a group of armor rifles of senior sergeant Sobgaydy (six people with three anti-tank guns), four mortar men with two mortars commanded by Lieutenant Chernyshenko and three machine gunners. The commander of the stronghold was appointed Lieutenant Afanasyev.
The Nazis almost all the time were carrying out massive artillery and mortar fire on the house, they attacked it from the air, they continuously attacked. But the garrison of the “fortress” - this was how Pavlov’s house was marked on the staff map of Colonel-General Paulus, the commander of 6 of the German army, prepared him skillfully for all-round defense. The fighters fired from different places through the embrasures in the bricked-up windows and holes in the walls. When the Nazis tried to get closer to the building, they were met by heavy machine-gun fire. The garrison steadfastly repelled enemy attacks and inflicted heavy losses on the Nazis. And most importantly - in the operational-tactical plan, the defenders of the house did not allow the enemy to break through to the Volga in this sector. It was not by chance that on the map of Paulus it appeared that a Russian battalion was allegedly in the house.
Lieutenants Afanasyev, Chernyshenko and Sergeant Pavlov established fire interaction with the strongholds in the neighboring buildings - in the house that was defended by Lieutenant Zabolotny, and in the mill building where the command post of the 42 Infantry Regiment was located. On the third floor of the Pavlov's house, an observation post was equipped, which the Nazis could not suppress. In one of the basements held a telephone line and installed a field device. This point had a symbolic call sign "Lighthouse". “A small group, defending one house, destroyed the enemy soldiers more than the Nazis lost when they took Paris,” said Vasily Chuikov.Pavlov’s home was defended by 11 nationalities - Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Belorussians, Georgians, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kalmyks, Abkhazs, Tajik, Tatar ... According to official figures, the 24 fighter. Really - from 26 to 30. There were dead, wounded, but a replacement came. Sergeant Pavlov (born 17 on October 1917 of the year in Valdai, in the Novgorod region) celebrated the 25 anniversary within the walls of his “home”. True, nothing has been written about this anywhere, and Yakov Fedotovich and his battle friends preferred to keep silent about this.
As a result of continuous shelling, the building was seriously damaged, one end wall was almost completely destroyed. In order to avoid losses from blockages, on the orders of the regiment commander, part of the fire weapons was moved outside the building. Despite fierce enemy attacks, the defenders of Pavlov’s house, Zabolotny’s house and the mills, which the Guards turned into strongholds, continued to hold on to defenses.
How did you manage not only to survive in the fiery hell, but also to defend effectively? Firstly, Afanasyev and Pavlov were experienced fighters. A sergeant from 1938 in the Red Army, before Stalingrad, was the commander of the machine-gun department, the gunner of the gun. Secondly, the reserve positions equipped by them were very helpful to the fighters. In front of the house was a cemented fuel depot. An underground passage was dug to it. Thirty meters from the house was the hatch of the water tunnel, to which the soldiers also dug an underground passage. On it to the defenders of the house received ammunition and scarce prodpayk. During shelling, everything except the observers and military escort went down to the shelters. Including the remaining civilians in the house (when Pavlov and his fighters occupied the house, there were about three dozen of them - women, old people, children), who for various reasons could not immediately evacuate. The shelling stopped, and the entire small garrison was again in its positions in the building, firing again at the enemy. 58 days and nights kept the defense. The fighters left the 24 stronghold of November, when the regiment, along with other units, launched a counter-offensive.
The country highly appreciated the feat of the defenders of the house. All were awarded government awards. And Sergeant Pavlov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. However, after the war - by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from 27 June 1945 of the year, after Jacob Fedotovich joined the party.
For the sake of historical truth, we note that the defense of the outpost was really led by Lieutenant I. F. Afanasyev (1916 – 1975). After all, he was a senior in rank. But Afanasyev was not awarded the title Hero. Upstairs they decided to submit to the high rank of junior commander, who, together with his fighters, first broke through to the house and took up defense there. Already after the fighting, someone made the appropriate inscription on the wall of the building. She was seen by warlords, war correspondents. Under the name "Pavlov's House", the object was originally listed in the combat reports. Thus, the building on the square 9 January entered history as the house of Pavlov.
But what about Lieutenant Afanasyev? Ivan Filippovich was a very modest man and never put out his merit. In fact, he remained in the shadow of the subsequent glory of his subordinate. Although the merit of combat Yakov Fedotovich indisputable. Pavlov, despite the injury, and after Stalingrad remained in the army, already as an artilleryman. And in the other part. The war ended on the Oder by the foreman. Later he was given an officer rank.
Today, about 1200 direct participants in the Battle of Stalingrad have remained in the hero city (approximately, because they are getting smaller). Jacob Pavlov could rightfully be on this list - after all, he was invited to settle in the restored city. The hero was very sociable, many times he met with residents who survived the war and raised it from the ruins, with young people. Yakov Fedotovich lived by the concerns and interests of the city on the Volga, and participated in patriotic education events.
Pavlov's legendary house in the city became the first restored building. And the first was telephonized. And some of the apartments there were received by those who came to rebuild Stalingrad from all over the country. The memorial inscription on the wall reads: “At the end of September 1942, this house was occupied by Sergeant Ya. F. Pavlov and his comrades A. Aleksandrov, P. Glushchenko, N. Ya. Chernogolov. During September-November 1942 the house was heroically defended by the soldiers of the 3 Battalion of the 42 Guards Rifle Regiment of the 13 Guards Order of Lenin Rifle Division: Aleksandrov A. P., Afanasyev I. F., Bondarenko M. S., Voronov I. V., Glushchenko V. S., Gridin T. I., Dovzhenko P. I., Ivashchenko A. I., Kiselev V. M., Mosiashvili N. G., Murzaev T., Pavlov Ya. F., Ramazanov F. 3., Sara ev V. K., Svirin I. T., Sobgayda A. A., Turgunov K., Turdyev M., Khait I. Ya., Chernogolov N. Ya., Chernyshenko A. N., Shapovalov A. E., Yakimenko G.I. ” But three names are not named ...
All the surviving defenders of the house that went down in history were always the most dear guests of the townspeople. In 1980, Yakov Fedotovich was awarded the title "Honorary Citizen of the Hero-City of Volgograd." But ... right after the demobilization in August of 1946, the hero returned to his native Novgorodchin. He worked in party organs in the city of Valdai. Received a higher education. Three times elected deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR from the Novgorod region. Peaceful awards were added to the military awards: the Order of Lenin and the October Revolution, medals ...
Yakov Fedotovich died in 1981 year - the consequences of front-line injuries affected. But it so happened that around the house of Sergeant Pavlov and himself there were legends and myths. Their echoes can be heard now. So, for many years, rumor said that Yakov Pavlov did not die at all, but took monastic tonsure and became Archimandrite Cyril. This, in particular, was reported by one of the central newspapers.
Is it so, the employees of the Volgograd State Museum-Panorama of the Battle of Stalingrad found out. And what? Father Cyril in the world really was Pavlov. But - Ivan. He participated in the Battle of Stalingrad. And then both Jacob and Ivan were sergeants, and both finished the war as junior lieutenants. In the initial period of the war, Ivan Pavlov served in the Far East, and in October 1941, as part of his unit, arrived on the Volkhov front. Then - Stalingrad. In 1942, he was wounded twice. But survived. When the fighting in Stalingrad subsided, Ivan accidentally found a scorched gospel among the rubble. He considered this to be a sign from above, and his heart-burned by the war prompted: keep the volume in your possession.
In the ranks of the tank corps Ivan Pavlov fought with Romania, Hungary and Austria. And everywhere with him in the knapsack was a burnt church little book from Stalingrad. Demobilized in 1946-m, he went to Moscow. In Yelokhovsky Cathedral I asked how to become a priest. As was, in uniform, went to enroll in a theological seminary. After many years, the staff of the military registration and enlistment office of Sergiyev Posad near Moscow asked Archimandrite Cyril: what should I report upstairs about Sergeant Pavlov, the defender of Stalingrad? Cyril replied: he is not alive.
But this is not the end of our story. During the search, the museum staff (I was there as a student in Pavlov’s house, many times as a student, because before the army I studied at a nearby university) we managed to establish the following. Among the participants in the Battle of Stalingrad were the three Pavlovs, who became Heroes of the Soviet Union. In addition to Yakov Fedotovich, this is tanker captain Sergey Mikhailovich Pavlov and infantry guard senior sergeant Dmitry Ivanovich Pavlov. On the Pavlovs, as on the Ivanovs, Petrovs, Russia is holding on.
As for the defenders of the legendary house, only one of them survived to this day. This is Uzbek Kamoljon Turgunov. After the victory on the Volga, he made a vow: he will have as many sons and grandchildren as his comrades died in the Battle of Stalingrad. And indeed, his 78 grandchildren and more than thirty great-grandchildren came to pay homage to the aksakal. The last defender of Pavlov’s house, who defended him with the PTR, survived Ivan Afanasyev, Yakov Pavlov and other fellow soldiers much more. Turgunov died 16 March 2015 year. He was 93 ...
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