"Panfilov" of the Arc of Fire
President Vladimir Putin met with participants in the Battle of Kursk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited Prokhorovka on the 70 anniversary of the Battle of Kursk, urged volunteers to “turn to the search for heroes of the Great Patriotic War who are still unknown to the general public”: “There are thousands of documents in the military archives, unique facts about their exploits. And we should gradually, year after year, extract them from non-existence. ” At the same time, he spoke in favor of carrying out “large-scale work on bringing military graves to a decent look, primarily in small rural memorials, mass graves and monuments”: “Children and adolescents should be involved in this noble cause, youth volunteer teams should be formed”. It turns out that such work is being conducted in a number of regions without such “target designations” of the authorities. When the patriots from the “bottom” turn to the “top” with the corresponding proposals, the authorities often do not hear them, gets off with non-binding formal replies. Below is a specific example.
THE BORDERS HAVE STAND UP
A couple of years before the 70 anniversary of the Battle of Kursk, recently widely celebrated with the participation of the head of state, a certain Vladimir Fedorovich Korolev, a resident of the town of Shchigry, east of the regional center, was in the epicenter of the battle in 1943, as an additional education teacher of the Station of young technicians and the head of the military-patriotic club "Pogranichnik" appealed to the representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Kursk region. It was a public initiative - a petition for the posthumous assignment of the title of Heroes of Russia 18 to border guards - the commander and soldiers of the 2 platoon of the 3 company of the 224 regiment of the 162 rifle division of the 70-th separate army of the NKVD army who committed in July XMT. Year unprecedented feat.
On one of the frontiers in the area of the Kursk bulge, for several hours, with unbending stubbornness, they defended against two hundred Nazis who attacked them, of whom at least 80 was destroyed. None of those holding the line did not retire from the position, although he could not see: the chances of surviving were reduced to zero. And they all fell to pieces (paraphrasing a famous song, one might say, even three of the eighteen guys were left ”). Only after that the Germans were able to move forward. At the same time, each of 18 was posthumously presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union; newspapers called them "Kursk Panfilov." However, even a platoon commander was not awarded the Gold Star - Senior Lieutenant Alexander Demidovich Romanovsky.
“Anyway,” said Korolev, a high-ranking official, “about 40 thousands of border guards who arrived here from the Far East and the southern outskirts of the country took part in the battles near Kursk (the same Romanovsky was a graduate of the 30 of the Bakhtinsky border detachment deployed in Kazakhstan), and none of them - not one! - was not awarded the title of Hero. Of the more than 200 people who received the Golden Star for participating in this grand battle, not a single border guard! Is not it a shame, is it fair?!.
Let us clarify, according to the official website of the State Military History Museum-Reserve “Prokhorovsky Field” of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, as of November 2012, the list of Heroes of the Soviet Union who received this title for participation in the Battle of Kursk from July 5 through August 23, biographies 1943 man (of which, according to the author of these lines, 241 was awarded the Gold Star posthumously).
On the 70-th separate army of the NKVD troops, which included the border troops, I must say a few words. Very little has been written about her participation in the massacre near Kursk: at one time it was silenced for various reasons, and her commanders did not leave memoirs. In addition, by the time of the fiery arc fighting, she had become just the 70 army (while remaining predominantly “borderline” in its composition). It is obvious that the Soviet command strengthened the defense near Kursk not only due to the deeply echeloned defense and the use of the latest technology. Here, because, thanks to timely intelligence data, they waited ahead of time for an unprecedented blow of the fist of the Germans, the task was to oppose him and experienced, well-trained, strong soldiers. It was then that the army of the NKVD troops, consisting of border guards, which had been formed earlier in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), was sent from the reserve of Stavka to the Kursk Bulge. It is well known that it was for service on the frontiers of the country that the most enduring, brave, strong, morally hardened, reliable fighters were selected. And the very specifics of protecting the state border gives the "green caps" incomparable combat experience. And it is these, in modern terms, the elite units stood on the most dangerous directions and subsequently made a significant contribution to the victory in the greatest battle of the Great Patriotic War. In the future, 70-I army participated in almost all subsequent major battles of the Second World War, together with other military unions took Berlin.
CONFIRMED DOCUMENTALLY
The feat of the handful of its fighters, who repelled the numerous attacks of more than tenfold superior to the Wehrmacht soldiers on the Kursk salient, was documented.
The events took place on July 15, 1943. By this day, the German troops have already run out of steam squeezing "ticks" under the sections of the ledge, the famous has already happened tank the battle near the village of Prokhorovka (July 12), and it has already been three days since the Oryol offensive operation began. However, the Germans, having not achieved their plan (to encircle and defeat the two Soviet fronts defending the Kursk ledge) and switched to active defense, were still very strong, effectively counterattacked in many sectors, actively tried to prevent the Soviet command from developing success. In the conditions of such a fierce fire confrontation, the border platoon of Lieutenant Romanovsky turned out to be already incomplete from the losses incurred earlier.
Schygrynsky patriot teacher Vladimir Korolev restored the picture of events on archival reports and other reports of that time that came to his hands.
“The units of the 224 regiment were tasked to seize a certain line and hold it until the main forces approached,” he told reporters. - The Romanovsky platoon was ordered to grab on the flank to the dominant height near the village of Samodurovka (now it is the village of Igishevo in the Ponyrovsky district of the Kursk region) and to gain a foothold on it, as they say, tightly. What he did. To the enemy, this height became like a bone in the throat, the terrain was such that it was impossible to bypass it. And the attacks began. One by one. The numerical superiority of the enemy was overwhelming, the platoon leader saw this, in such conditions they ask the higher commander for support or withdrawal. But he also saw something else: he would step aside, and the battalion’s flank would be denied, the Nazis would be able to strike from the rear. It was then that he made his heroic decision - to stand to the death! ..
The terrain, viewed from the height, into the ground, ammunition initially allowed experienced fighters to repel one attack after another. But the desire of the Germans to throw them from a height was implacable. As a result, the "gray uniforms" managed to surround the Red Army, many of whom were injured by that hour. The cartridges were running out, and when they were over, Romanovsky raised the remaining fighters to the counterattack - hand-to-hand ...
- In her and lay dead. Romanovsky's body was literally riddled with bullets ... - in anxiety, finished the story about that fight of Korolev. And with a sigh, he continued: “A few weeks later, an order was issued to award them. All 18 people were posthumously presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But after eight months, the order was changed - instead of the highest award, they were given orders of the Patriotic War, I degree ... You know, for all history There were only three episodes of the Great Patriotic War when whole groups were awarded the Golden Star. This feat under Kursk could become the fourth such episode ... Now we are trying to ensure that a memorable sign was erected in place of a small Kursk-based battlefield battle of a platoon of senior lieutenant Romanovsky. Because now this feat of "Kursk Panfilov" is actually forgotten ...
In this context, it should be noted that the teacher from Shchigry heads the club of frontier guards from 1990; he once served emergency service in the Border Troops of the KGB of the USSR. The club specializes in training young people for service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, applied military archeology with elements of local history, tourism and service dog breeding, participates in the “Watch of Memory” to search for and reburial of the dead Soviet soldiers in the Oryol, Kursk and Belgorod regions. Vladimir Fedorovich shoveled the darkness of archival documents concerning the participation of "green caps" in the Battle of Kursk, on the basis of which he published two books - "The Frontier Guards on the Fiery Arc" (2003) and "The Frontier Guards on the Kursk Bulge" (2006), is preparing a third for printing.
In the last years before the 70 anniversary of the Battle of Kursk, he and his pets were looking for relatives of border guards who died with Alexander Romanovsky, collecting signatures to appeal to the president of the country so that the historic warriors would die for the soldiers killed and presented to the Golden Star of the Hero. justice. Delegations from Dagestan, Kazakhstan, and Siberia have already arrived at Shchigry, because the platoon of “Kursk Panfilov’s” was multinational. In addition to the Russians, including the two Kuryans, Ukrainians, Tatar, Mordvin, Kazakh, Chechen, Dagestan, Azerbaijani fought here.
The queen managed to find out the name of the brave men who fell in death as part of a Dagestanian unit - Ilyas Akbolatovich Arslangereev, 1922, born, from the village of Batyurt of the Khasavyurt district of the Caspian republic. He was a junior sergeant. The place where he is buried is also known - in the village of Teploe (Bobrik), Cheremesinovsky district, Kursk region. In Khasavyurt lives nephew of the deceased - Obkom Abzatov. Some time ago, an active Kuryanin sought him out and sent him a letter with a copy of the award list to Ilyas Arslangereeyev.
It makes sense to bring an excerpt from this document, signed by the commander of the 224-th Pamir Infantry Regiment, to once again realize what was done by a handful of fighters at one of the nameless heights of the Kursk bulge described in the details sheet only contribute to this:
“In the midst of the July offensive battles, when the enemy at any cost tried to break through to Kursk, the regiment had the task of taking altitude near the village of Teploe. The platoon of Lieutenant Romanovsky was ordered to cut off the right flank in order to regroup the 1 Infantry Battalion with access to its sec. Self-balancing. The Germans, taking advantage of the small number of our cover, pulled up against a platoon of 18 people to 200 machine gunners and, taking advantage of the vantage point, hiding in rye, gradually surrounded our platoon. Having guessed the enemy’s plan, Lieutenant Romanovsky entered an unequal battle. Each fighter firmly went on rapprochement with the enemy, broke into the trenches, shot at close range, struck with a bayonet, beat with a shovel. The Germans backed up, tried to dig in, but the heroes continued to overtake and destroy them. The ranks of the Nazis thinned. In place of this intense fire and hand-to-hand combat, 84 killed German soldiers were counted. Romanovsky and all the 18 hero fighters died, but they did not retreat a single step. Command order was executed. Junior Sergeant I.A. Arslangereyev is worthy of posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. "
Blame Rokossovsky?
Despite the intentions of their direct command, none of the “Kursk Panfilovs” was awarded the Golden Star, the local historian-initiator Korolev “blames” in part the commander of the Central Front of the Army General (later Marshal) Konstantin Rokossovsky, under whose command was the 70 th "border" army. They say that the one who had served three years before the war in the dungeons of Beria’s department could have a “grudge”, an insult to the NKVD, which included border guards, and in terms of rewards, he voluntarily or involuntarily infringed upon border guards subordinate to him, who fought on the Arc of Fire.
Soviet warriors stood to death. Photo from the album of The Eastern Front in Photographs by John Erickson
We attribute this to the excessive emotionality of Shchigrinsky teacher and initiator in the matter of military-patriotic education. But nevertheless, in defense of the outstanding Russian commander, it makes sense to give a curious, little-known testimony of one of the direct participants in the battle on the Kursk Bulge - twice Hero of the Soviet Union Marshal aviation Alexander Nikolaevich Efimov, with whom the author of these lines had several conversations in the first decade of the 2000s. The episode, however, refers already to the operation "Bagration", carried out in 1944 in Belarus, but this is not important. Here is what Efimov told me:
- Shortly before the onset of the offensive, Konstantin Konstantinovich conducted a reconnaissance in which I had the opportunity to participate, although I was just the squadron leader of the Il-2 attack aircraft ... We are following each other along the trench - Rokossovsky, our aviation divisional leadership, then we, the younger ones officers. The Commander’s Front brings in the essence of the upcoming combat mission, we hear his voice ... You imagine the trench: there two people shoulder to shoulder barely pass. Suddenly the chain stopped, Rokossovsky could not be heard. After some time, moved again. Reconnaissance ended, and we did not understand what it was for a hitch. Then Colonel Tyapkov, head of the division’s division, approached us with a meaning and said: “Yes, this is man-made!” And he said the following. When they were walking along the trench, Rokossovsky had already passed the foreman who had stretched into a string. Suddenly he stops and says to him: “Do you remember me?”
The foreman became white! It turns out that this foreman in the notorious enscade "Crosses" was a guard and, apparently, Rokossovsky closely met him. The commander noticed several orders in front of the foreman and said: “Well, judging by the awards, you are fighting well. Well, God forbid! .. ”
(For reference: “Crosses” - the infamous detention center in Leningrad, where from August 1937 to March 1940 was in charge of the Komkor Rokossovsky convicted by the shooting 58 article “Polish and Japanese spy”; “butchers” knocked out all his teeth from the NKVD , broken ribs, damaged spine and liver.)
So in vain the active Kuryanin Korolev sees in the non-awarding of 18 Stars of Heroes of 70, border guards from the XNUMX Army of the NKVD who had fallen near Kursk to the "machinations" of more than respectable, most delicate and not vengeful marshal (which, by the way, is well known to everyone).
DOES DOES NOT AWARD? PRECEDENTS - TENS!
Meanwhile, the corresponding appeal of the Queen to the Ministry of Defense, he received a response in the sense that again for the feat not awarded. Korolev parries: it is not, there are precedents. And he cites an example: “We have a pilot-kureanka, she died in October 1941 of the year. In December, she was posthumously given the Order of Lenin, and in May 1990, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was reappointed. ”
Here you can remember that decades later, the Gold Star and such well-known warriors of the Great Patriotic War, as intelligence officer Richard Sorge (1964) and submariner Alexander Marinesko (1990), were awarded “repeatedly”.
Found after the war, the highest award and a number of other heroically distinguished, including the Kursk Bulge. For example, guard medical sergeant Maria Borovichenko became the Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously on May 6 of the year 1965. In the summer of 1943, she, a graduate of the nursing courses, still 17-year-old (!), But already fighting for two years (!), Fought in the 32-m rifle corps of General Alexander Rodimtsev, who led fierce battles near Oboyan, where Hitler's units tried to break through to Kursk. There 14 July near the village of Orlovka, Ivnyansky District, Belgorod Region, Masha was rescued by Lieutenant Kornienko. I saved it by covering it with my own body and throwing a grenade at the approaching enemy tank. In the same battle, a shell fragment hit her right in the heart.
By the way, she was one of only two women who received the title of Hero for participating in the battles at the Kursk Bulge. Another nurse, Senior Sergeant Zinaida Mareseva, was also posthumously awarded the Gold Star 1944 in February - for crossing the 214-1 August 3 of the Guards Rifle Regiment of the Seversky Donets south of Belgorod as part of the 1943. Since we already mentioned her, I must say about her feat, truly unparalleled for the 20-year-old girl, which she was at that time. The crossing was difficult, the Germans strenuously dug in the bridgehead, for which they managed to catch the men who were forcing the river. And on one of the sites from the eighth attempt, they managed to turn the battalion, in which Mareseva acted, into flight. Judging by the entries in the award list, Zina thought first of all about what would happen to the wounded soldiers leaving the retreating soldiers who were awaiting evacuation to the left bank? And then she, with a pistol in her hand, ran towards the runner with exclamations: “Stand! Back! Not one step back! ”,“ Forward, follow me! ”And made them not only stop, but also drew them in a counterattack.
Surprisingly, the situation on the threatened site was restored. In the battle under the start of a brave nurse, more than 150 Nazis were destroyed, 8 machine guns, 2 mortars and 20 grenade launchers were captured. The sappers put a foot bridge across the river, through which the girl, under enemy fire, sent wounded soldiers and officers to the left bank of the Seversky Donets all night. By morning, the structure was broken by enemy artillery. Mareseva continued to ship those who left the battlefield by boat. On one of the flights, she was mortally wounded by a splinter of a broken mine, and on August 6 1943 died in hospital.
One of the last Heroes of the Soviet Union was 26 June 1991 of the year and the front-line commander, Major General Aviation Konstantin Alekseevich Labutin. In the Great Patriotic War, he participated in June 1943, when, as commander of a fighter squadron, he began to make combat missions on the Voronezh front, defending the south of the Kursk salient.
By May 1945, Captain Labutin made 232 combat sorties, in 63 air battles he personally shot down 15 enemy planes. During the two years of the war, he was worthily marked: two orders of the Red Banner and World War 1 degree and the Order of Alexander Nevsky, with medals.
Also, for showing courage and heroism in the Battle of Moscow in 1942, Panfilov was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and later Soviet writer from Kazakhstan Bauyrzhan Momysh-uly, but it was awarded to him only 11 December 1990 of the year (and after death - the front-line soldier died eight years before).
Not to mention the fact that in recent history there are dozens of cases recorded when warriors presented for the Golden Star during the Great Patriotic War received the Stars of Heroes of the Russian Federation.
“Such examples,” says Korolev, “are already quite enough.” At least from 1994 to 2010 the year 109 participants of World War II became Heroes of Russia, who in those years were either promoted to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union or their exploits were not appreciated then. For example, the title of Hero of Russia was awarded to a veteran resident of Krasnodar Georgy Georgievich Bystritsky. Also during the war years, a resident of the Khabarovsk Territory, a sniper Maxim Passar, was presented for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but later received only an order. Local schoolchildren learned about the heroic deed of the countryman, collected signatures in his support, appealed to the president, and in February 2010, Passar became the Hero of Russia.
Let's add for persuasiveness. Heroes of the Russian Federation were commemorated post-mortem commander Lieutenant-General Mikhail Efremov, who was killed in 1942 in the environment surrounding Vyazma; the partisan Vera Voloshina who repeated the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskoy during the defense of Moscow; Fighter pilots shot down by 10 Fascist aircraft, commander of the air line Ekaterina Budanova; the commander of the first experimental battery of rocket artillery (later named “Katyusha” at the front), captain Ivan Flerov.
Two years before his death in 1995, the only woman in naval aviation who flew the Il-2 attack aircraft and sank three enemy vehicles, senior lieutenant Lydia Shulaikin, became a Hero of Russia. Another aviator, the “night witch”, who bombed the Germans on the legendary “corn duster” Po-2 (U-2), retired senior lieutenant Alexander Akimov, was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in April 1945 (the document was signed by Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky!) . But in Moscow they decided that the 22-year-old girl, who retrained from the front to the navigator and made 715 combat missions in two years of fighting, did not grow to such a high award, and awarded her with an order. She was awarded the title Hero of Russia 31 December 1994.
Alas, the efforts of the Shchigrinsky initiator Vladimir Korolev regarding the 18 border guards who died heroically at the Kursk salient have not yet been crowned with success. This time, in the framework of the celebration of the 70 anniversary of the battle, none of its veterans were celebrated at all, who accomplished a feat there, but for various reasons, was not awarded a deserved reward at that time. President Vladimir Putin, who visited 12 on June 2013 of the year on the Prokhorovsky field and met with former officers and soldiers who fought on the Fiery Arc, unfortunately did not address this important issue in any way. The letter from the Queen mentioned above probably did not reach him. It's a pity.
If the posthumous awarding of the Golden Star of the Hero of Russia in question would have been held with the participation of the head of state (however, it could have been otherwise), it would hardly have seemed a kind of "precedent." And it would be an additional significant example of a grateful attitude towards veterans, would contribute to the education of heroic beginnings among young people. Especially since a lot has been said about this today at different levels.
An unknown (or rather, little-known) feat of 18 border guards fits the framework of this work as well as possible.
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