The legendary scout, who became the prototype of "Alyosha", decided to hand over the order, which was forgotten 68 years ago
The veteran of the Great Patriotic War, known in Russia, Alexey Skurlatov, who became the prototype of the monument to the Soviet soldier Alyosha in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, will be awarded the Order of the Red Star, which he was awarded in 1944 year. Enthusiasts, studying the documents in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense in Podolsk, found the lost documents on awarding the order, in which there was no record of delivery.
During the war, Sergeant Skurlatov was twice awarded the Order of the Red Star, but information about a single award was lost. As ITAR-TASS was told in the military commissariat of the Altai Territory, the hero received the first order, but not the second. It is assumed that in September the order will be sent to the Altai Territory, where the veteran lives, and it will be handed over to Alexei Ivanovich, the acting head of the Department for Work with Citizens of the Military Commissariat of the Territory, Aleksey Zhirnov, said.
The battle, in which Aleksey Skurlatov distinguished himself, took place in January of 1944, when he fought as part of the 234-th artillery regiment of the 188-th rifle division of the 3-th Ukrainian front. As stated in the award leaflet, "moving in the combat formations of the infantry and not paying attention to the artillery bombardment," the sergeant, "never for a moment stopped observing the enemy, discovered his firing points in a timely manner." During the offensive Skurlatov were discovered artillery battery, easel and light machine gun of the enemy, which destroyed the division fire.
In addition, at the time of the counterattack of the infantry and tanks Skurlatov adversary from his personal weapons destroyed two German soldiers. After being wounded, he refused to leave the battlefield, continuing to conduct intensive shelling of the enemy’s positions, according to archive documents.
The second Order of the Red Star was presented to Alexei Skurlatov for courage shown in August 1944, when, together with his comrades, he defended the Soviet command-height observation point from the enemy, personally destroyed the enemy soldiers 18 and captured five fascists.
Alexey Skurlatov became the prototype for the monument to Alyosha by Vasil Rodoslavov, because he fought in those places in 1944 in the past year - he restored the telephone line Plovdiv-Sofia. In Plovdiv, he made friends with the telephone station worker Metodi Vitanov. According to one of the versions, it was Vitanov who transmitted the photo of Skurlatov to the sculptor, and he created a monument in this image.
The monument is a 11-meter reinforced concrete sculpture standing on a pedestal of a Soviet soldier holding a machine gun directed into the ground in his hand. The monument was erected in the year 1954, and the solemnly opened on November 7 year 1957.
In 1966, the poet Konstantin Vanshenkin and the composer Eduard Kolmanovsky wrote the famous song "Alyosha", dedicated to this monument. Until 1989, it was the official anthem of Plovdiv.
Information