Captain Bast's last pier
Stereotypes. This is a given, which not only interferes with life, but it greatly complicates the normal functioning of the brain. And these stereotypes need to be destroyed from time to time, if not shaken, then to the full.
There is no need to talk about what stereotypes we have developed over the past ten years in relation to our Ukrainian neighbors. And the majority of consumers of information in Russia are absolutely sure that Ukrainians are all as one similar to those organisms that act as clowns at Solovyov's TV show.
I am just happy that I had the opportunity to talk about how calmly and unnoticed (for us) some Ukrainians are doing their job. Not the ones who destroy monuments and desecrate graves. I will not even try to prove that they are minuscule in Ukraine, they still will not believe.
I will talk about those who are engaged in completely opposite cases. In Ukraine.
On June 22, 2020, on the Day of Remembrance and Mourning, at a war memorial in the village of Gatnoe, Fastovsky district, Kiev region, it was planned to reburial the remains of 22 Red Army soldiers who defended Kiev in 1941, among whom it was possible to establish the surname (by the death medallion) of only one of them. This is Sergei Titovich Savenok.
As luck would have it, the commander joined them, who was discovered by the search engines of the archaeological patriotic search association "Dnepr - Ukraine" from the city of Kiev in September 2019.
The story of Vitaly Rubanov, Deputy Head of the APPO "Dnepr-Ukraine":
“Early Saturday morning on September 28, 2019, we set off in a small group of three to the area with. Lyubartsy (Boryspil district, Kiev region). The purpose of the trip was to find the places of fierce battles surrounded by units of 37A in September-October 1941. It was planned to find the place of the broken convoy. But they were late. The field on which they wanted to work had already been sown with winter crops. We had already turned back home, but the idea arose to call on old places, as they say, "what if ..." I really didn't want to waste the day.
The nearest interesting place to search was a field near the Yazvina Mogila mound.
On September 20, 1941, an attempt was made here to break through the encirclement ring by a detachment of sailors from the Pinsk military flotilla and border guards. At the initiative of the local historian Pyotr Fedorovich Zinchenko and the Kiev public organization "The Association of Veterans of the Navy Intelligence" from 2005 to 2009, search engines of the Kiev City Historical and Patriotic Club "Poisk", the "Dnepr" and "Patriot" detachments have already been working here. Then the remains of forty-one people were raised and reburied. These were mainly sailors of the PVF and border guards. And our organization has repeatedly worked in these places. But nevertheless, the field near the mound has always attracted ...
We decided to go through these places once again ... We worked literally 100 meters from the mound. One of the first major signals indicated a deep object. After removing a meter layer of heavy clay soil from the ground, a Mosin rifle and the remains of a soldier appeared.
As the "loner" was opened, a black cloth began to be seen in the area of the arms. The first thing I thought about at that moment: a sailor! And, as it turned out later, I was not mistaken. From the belt and further up, one after the other, buttons with anchors went.
Fragments of an overcoat miraculously survived in the lower part of the sleeve. They clearly showed the maritime sleeve insignia with three wide braids (stripes of gilded gimp) - captain 3rd rank (in land - major).
Emotions overwhelmed. Not every day it is possible to find the commander of the Pinsk flotilla. I continued to dig further. In the area of the left chest near the ribs, a piece of earth collapsed. The edge of the tightly compressed paper appeared. "Is it really a document?" - I thought. But he didn't risk it, trying to satisfy his curiosity on the spot. I cut it out along with the raw soil, wrapped it in cellophane and placed it in a cardboard container. The work was completed after a few hours. I reported to the head of our organization about the work done, and we went home with the feeling that today was not even in vain, and in the hope that this stories will be continued ”.
Then the heads of the organizations, Sergei Pavlovich Raspashnyuk (APPO "Dnepr - Ukraine") and Alexander Vladimirovich Marmashov (LLC "Association of Veterans of Naval Intelligence") joined the work, who decided to jointly conduct an examination and all the necessary work on identification and subsequent reburial.
My further correspondent was Sergey Gafarov, Deputy Chairman of the Association of Veterans of Naval Intelligence, who provided photographic materials and information on the work done.
It took the expert about two months to work out the document found in the ground. Brief excerpt from the report:
"Research results 01.10.19 - 05.12.19.
As a result of prolonged and careful delamination, it was possible to separate from each other all the surviving fragments of papers and documents that were previously inside the breast pocket. Thus, it became possible to establish that inside the pocket there was a party card of a member of the CPSU (b) in a thick cardboard protective cover. No traces of other papers or documents were found in the pocket.
The 1936 party card has a red PVC-based protective cover. The edges of the document are badly damaged, partially rotted and peeled off, so it is not possible to establish the exact dimensions. The inscriptions on the front cover indicate that the ticket is of the central (not republican) sample (RSFSR). The inner sheets of the party card are rotten through and through and cannot be delaminated. Their remains are stuck to the cover, the inscriptions are visually unreadable.
By means of a complex and laborious technique, it was possible to obtain fragmentary images of individual letters, words, and strokes on the surviving sections of the first page. After that, these fragmentary images were superimposed by the method of compilation by tags on the background clean image of the 1936 party card form. Thus, it was possible to restore almost all the records on the first page in one image for further reading.
In the lower right corner of the document there is a blue imprint of a round seal: "Political department of the Dnieper military flotilla" (inscription in a circle). All inscriptions on the first page of the VKP (b) ticket are made by hand in black ink.
Based on the above analysis of the materials and the text read, the following conclusions can be drawn about the identity of the former owner:
Bast Yevsey Zusevich, born in 1903, member of the CPSU (b) since May 1931.
The party card was issued by the Political Department of the Dnieper Military Flotilla (not earlier than 1936, in connection with the replacement of old documents with new ones) ... "
Immediately there was a reasonable assumption about the death of the captain of the third rank Bast.
In the course of work, a previously imperceptible fact became clear. The document was shot through by a bullet. And since the party card, as a rule, was carried in the left pocket of his tunic, it is quite possible that the wound was just in the area of the heart and led to the inevitable death of Yevsey Zusevich.
Then Sergei managed to witness another miracle, when in the "Live Journal", under an article about the actions of the Pinsk flotilla, he found the following comment: "The gunboat" Verny "was commanded by my grandfather, Captain 3rd Rank Bast Yevsey Zakharovich ..."
This was written by the granddaughter of Captain Bast, Marina Viktorovna Bast, who lives in Germany. She sent Sergei a personal file from her grandfather, which she received from the Russian State Archive of Aviation and Military Sciences and photographs. And at the same time she shared general information about her grandfather.
Yevsey Zusevich Bast was born on 31.08.1903 in the town of Makarov, Kiev district. Jew. Father - Zus Moishe Shlemov (Zakhar Solomonovich) Bast (born in 1888) was a hereditary tailor. The craft of tailoring has been passed down from generation to generation. Mother - Hana Rukhlya Ovseevna (Anna Evseevna), as usual, is a housewife. Yevsey was the eldest son in the family, besides him, there were three more brothers: Semyon (1909 - 03.10.1973/1911/1941), Yakov (1912-11.05.1970), Mikhail (XNUMX - XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX).
The family moved to Kiev in 1914. In 1920, Zus Shlemovich died during a pogrom. Anna Evseevna is left with four children in her arms without a livelihood. Yevsey, the eldest in the family, was forced to leave the military-economic courses of the Red Army, where he was enrolled in September 1920. He goes to work.
As a literate person, Yevsey Zusevich worked as a clerk, census-taker, and worker in the boiler room of the Bolshevik plant.
In 1925 he was drafted into the army and sent to serve in the Black Sea Fleet Semi-Crew (FPE).
And then his military service began, which, frankly, went far beyond the urgent borders:
- from 09.01.1926/4/4 in the XNUMXth Hydro-reconnaissance detachment, then in the XNUMXth detachment of the marine reconnaissance aviation;
- from 08.01.1927/XNUMX/XNUMX head of the library;
- since 1927 clerk of the extra-urgent service of the 53rd separate squadron;
- from 06.12.1927 weapons master of the 53rd department an air squadron with a secondment for work in the operational unit of the Black Sea Air Force headquarters;
- from 01.10.1928/20.10.1931/XNUMX to XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX, a student of the Parallel Courses of the Higher Naval Order of Lenin of the Frunze Red Banner School;
- from 05.1931 member of the CPSU (b);
- from 20.10.1931, the chief of watch of the gunboat "Red Azerbaijan" of the Caspian military flotilla;
- from 05.11.1931/25.07.1932/XNUMX to XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX ship artilleryman of the KL "Red Azerbaijan" of the Caspian military flotilla;
- in October 1932 he married Lyubov Lvovna Shmelkina;
Yevsey Zusevich with his wife Lyubov Lvovna, 1932 (photo from the family archive of Bast M.V.)
- from 27.11.1932/XNUMX/XNUMX, student of the SKUKS artillery sector (special courses for command personnel) of the Red Army Navy;
- from 10.07.1933 he was transferred to service in the Dnieper military flotilla (DVF): port artilleryman, commander of the artillery group of the Verniy KL, divisional artilleryman;
- from 01.11.1933/XNUMX/XNUMX, the commander of the art group of the CR "Verny";
- in 1934 he completed two courses of the evening army KOMVUZ (communist higher educational institution) at the House of the Red Army in Kiev;
- 02.09.1934/XNUMX/XNUMX son Victor is born;
- from 01.01.1935/XNUMX/XNUMX, Bast - assistant commander of the CR "Verny";
- from 28.05.1935/XNUMX/XNUMX - commander of the CR "Verny";
- in 1936 received a ticket of a member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks No. 0261560 (issued by the Political Department of the Dnieper Military Flotilla);
- from 27.10.1936/1775/XNUMX - acting commander of military unit XNUMX of the Dnieper military flotilla;
- 28.12.1936 was awarded with a personalized gold watch (pr. NKO USSR No. 184);
- from 15.02.1937 - commander of the Levachev monitor of the 2nd division of monitors of the Far Eastern Fleet;
- from 29.07.1937/6/XNUMX - deputy. chief of the XNUMXth branch of the headquarters of the Far Eastern Front;
- from 10.03.1938/6/XNUMX - chief of the XNUMXth department (in command and control of the fleet) of the headquarters of the Far Eastern Front;
- from 29.10.1939/XNUMX/XNUMX - commander of a detachment of monitors of the Far Eastern Front;
- since July 1940, the commander of the monitor division of the Pinsk military flotilla (PVF);
- 04.04.1941/3/XNUMX he was awarded the title "Captain XNUMXrd Rank";
- from 11.07.1941/XNUMX/XNUMX - Commander of the monitor division of the Berezinsky Detachment of river ships;
- from 20.07.1941 - commander of the Berezinsky detachment of river ships;
- from 11.08.1941 - I. about. chief of the command department of the headquarters of the PVF (pr. on PVF №061 from 11.08.1941).
Captain of the third rank Bast disappeared without a trace when leaving the encirclement in September 1941.
21.04.1942/088/XNUMX excluded from the lists of the command staff of the Navy as missing (order of the head of the Command Directorate of the People's Commissariat of the Navy No. XNUMX).
And now, after so many years, the captain of the third rank Bast was finally buried the way he deserved, namely, together with the same soldiers of that war.
Unfortunately, many memorials, including in the village of Ivankovo, where many PVF sailors were buried in 2007 and 2009, are now closed to new burials. Marina Viktorovna Bast had the idea to bury her grandfather next to his wife, in the cemetery in Berkovtsy, but since she lives in Germany, and the burial requires quite a lot of paperwork, together with the search engines it was decided to bury Captain 3rd rank Bast during the next event ...
This is what happened in Gatnoye. 22 Red Army men from among the defenders of Kiev and the captain of the third rank of the Pinsk military flotilla Bast were interred. In compliance with all military honors. Yes, the event was not pompous, both quarantine and abnormal heat affected, but everything was done in such a way that none of the participants had a shadow of doubt that a great and useful work had been done.
Sergey Gafarov:
Probably, many will now say that this is a one-time affair, that all over Ukraine they are demolishing monuments that they can only reach ...
However, to believe it or not is a private matter for everyone. I specifically asked Sergei a question in this regard when we talked about the article. Here's what he answered:
“Fools and roads are not only Russia's problem. We have such "gifted" too a dime a dozen. But they keep us on our toes so that we do not relax.
The best example: in the midst of "decommunization" there was an exhibition dedicated to the Dnieper military flotilla. I have in my hands one of the exhibits - a star from the side of the "Shock" monitor.
And no one twists our hands. We receive work permits from the Ministry of Culture every year. Reburials all over the country! This year, quarantine is the only reason that prevented the events from being held by May 9. But when weakened, en masse throughout the country, the events took place by June 22.
Probably nothing and never will affect the search traffic. We work as we work. As the remains were transferred to the Russian Federation through Andrey Lyashchenko, and we are transferring them. And in the same way we take it back. "
Moreover, now the search engines of several organizations are continuing the summer sessions, which we are planning to jointly tell the Russian reader about. It seems to me that this makes a certain sense.
Of course, it is convenient for someone to think that “Ukraine is everything”. We will not impose our opinion on this. But for those who believe that this is not so, I am sure it will be interesting. There, abroad, which does not go through the minds and souls, there are many people for whom the war did not end until the last soldiers were buried. And it gives hope to the hearts.
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