Fallen father found after 75 years
He was considered missing and lay in the damp ground where Mius-front, 75 years passed. Almost his children lived nearby, but they did not know about it.
In the Rostov region there are a lot of search teams, but, unfortunately, no less than false search engines, black diggers. Some believe that the search engines are engaged only in excavations. But this is only a small part of the work of these search teams. Rostov search regional club "Memory-Search" almost 30 years. All the cases of this search organization are not listed in one article - these are recovered names, the publication of various papers on stories World War II, patriotic education of youth, archival research, regional, inter-regional and international search expeditions.
Memory watches are mainly seasonal work (spring, autumn), and gathering information is almost daily work. They try to collect all the information to the maximum - where he fought, died, buried. They help to write requests to the archives, to the embassies.
The collection of information for the new edition of the Book of Memory does not stop even for a day. In the process of work lists, surnames, all data are specified. Someone is not recorded, but someone is recorded twice. Someone has a wrong last name or first name. And when in the Book of Memory not just one last name, but information is given - where he fought, where he died and was buried, or where he went missing, then you see that there is practically no place for which my Don countrymen.
In the course of this research work you see the involvement of our countrymen, relatives to the Great Victory. This causes pride both for them and for our land. And, of course, in every line - fate. A person is considered missing, and there are documents on him - someone died in battle, someone in captivity. Previously, such work was simply impossible to do.
With an example I want to show what is changing. There was such a record: “Akimenko Timofey Markovich, genus. **, Art. Serge 19.03.1945. After working with archival documents, this record already looks like this: “Akimenko Timofey Markovich, born in 1913 year, born in the village of Mikhailovka of the Varanovsky village council, was called 24.06.1941 of the year. Neklinovsky RVK, 792 artillery regiment, 256 rifle division, radio operator 3 batteries, senior sergeant, died 19.03.1945 of the year, buried - Latvian SSR, Mitavsky district of Saldus volost, 1 km southeast of d. Vertiloe, mother Anna Egorovna.
After the war, the burials were transferred, enlarged. I found a site about graves and monuments in Latvia - there is a record on the monument in Pampali - Private TM. Akimenko, there are photos of the monument.
A resident of the Otradny Buzanenko Nadezhda Stepanovna addressed the question on the Book of Memory. She said that her father and brother went to the front in 1943 year together. And both died. Her brother, Denikov Ivan Stepanovich, is recorded in the Book of Memory, but for some reason there is no name of his father, Denikov Stepan Andreevich. When I asked Nadezhda Stepanovna in more detail, I learned that there was a notice of death, and that my mother received her child support after the war. She only remembers what was written in the notice - she died in the village of Belaya Zirka. I did not find such a village, or a record of S.A. Denikov. in the regional military registration and enlistment office, although I tried, as it seemed to me, all the spelling variants of the surname (often in military documents the surnames are written with errors - both they heard and they wrote). But since there was a notice, then he had to be recorded somewhere. And the allowance was paid on the basis of notices. Appealed to the Pension Fund. Indeed, the archive preserved in the pension case of Denikova Ekaterina notice of the death of her husband. And when they issued a copy of this notice, everything became clear - it was written there: Stefan Dinnikov (the rest of the data was written correctly). He died in the village of Big Belozerka Zaporozhye region. Under this name, he is in the regional military office, and in the Book of Memory. Nadezhda Stepanovna could not even think that this record was about her father.
Not in the Book of Memory of the name of Ivan Ivanovich Ladanovsky, a native of Primorka. I found out about him by chance from his daughter Valentina Ivanovna. She only knew from her mother that her father had died in some kind of camp. We managed to find a Ladonovsky prisoner of war card (one letter in the last name does not match, the rest of the data is his). We received confirmation from Germany and are now waiting for official documents about the stay and death in captivity of our countryman.
And in the Book of Memory there is another Ladonovsky, Ivan Grigorievich, who went missing - from Sambek village (wife - Alexandra Ivanovna), whose fate I would like to know, since there is a record that he was released from captivity (who knows about him - respond ).
It would be interesting to learn about the fate of Grigori Danilovich Aleinikov from the village of Natalyevka (wife - Klavdiya Ivanovna). It is recorded in the Book of Memory and in the military document that he died 27.09.1943 died and was buried in the village of Zaporozhye Oblast, and in the postwar document 1965, the record is alive.
The relatives considered Nikolay Nikitich Brazhenko missing and missing, but he returned to another family after the war. For responsiveness and assistance in this and other stories, we want to thank the staff of the administration of the Melentevsky and Neklinovsky settlements, as well as the registry office and the Pension Fund.
There is in the Book of Memory Baydak Gregory Pavlovich, who died from wounds in 1944 year in Kharkov. But in the Book of Memory of the Kharkiv region did not find his name. And when I was in Kharkov, I found the name of our countryman on the slab of a military cemetery. This information was passed to the staff of the Book of Memory's editors, and his name will be entered into the additional volume of the Book of Memory of the Kharkiv region. And in the village of Pokrovskoye, Rostov Region, his relatives were found with the help of a newspaper.
Some compatriots from the Book of Memory have not yet been able to find documents in the military archive. Maybe relatives will respond. Here are just a few: Abramenko Yakov Pavlovich, Avdeenko Semyon Afanasyevich, Agapov Anatoly Dmitriyevich, Akimenko Dmitry Sergeevich, Almasov Nikolai Sergeevich, Andrienko Andrei Nikiforovich, Andrusenko Dmitry Vasilievich, Andrusenko Pavel Romanovich, Andryushenko Fyodor Ilyich, Anistratenko Ivanovich Imitich Iophevich Ichichy non-afflicted Iphevichy. Nikitovich, Antonov Vasily Andreevich, Archipenko Vasily Mikhailovich, Archipenko Mikhail Ignatievich, Archipenko Nikolai Ivanovich, Archipenko Nikolai Paramonovich, Arhipov Tikhon Trofimovich, Afanasyev Fedor V Asilievich, Afonin Gavril Mikhailovich, Akhanov Nikolai Ivanovich.
One of the main components of the search is excavation.
Twice a year, in spring and autumn, the Rostov Regional Memory-Search Club conducts search watches. The goal is to find and bury the remains of soldiers with honors and, if possible, return the names of the missing defenders of the Fatherland from non-existence. Search engines come to watch from many cities. Among them are people who have extensive search work experience, and schoolchildren aged 12 years who come with their teachers.
The guys go through an excellent school life, learn to evaluate their strengths and capabilities, and most importantly, they simply cannot be indifferent to their historical past, to the history of the Great Patriotic War, which is seen here differently than in textbooks. The guys are very different. This is expressed in a more responsible attitude to what they do, to the people around them.
More 2015 people from the search teams of Rostov-on-Don, Yegorlyk district, the Republic of Mordovia, the city of Taganrog, and the villages of Nikolayevka and Pokrovsky took part in the autumn watch of Mius-30.
The camp was set up in a forest belt by the pond. On the first evening, the head of the search watch, Dmitriy Nikolayevich Sanin, told the children about those distant scary years, about military events in this territory. Not a single lesson at a desk can compare with this. Boys and girls not only listened, but asked questions, expressed their point of view. I did not see them as ordinary mischievous schoolchildren, it was a discussion of the topic by adult interested people.
I heard the opinion that it is impossible to involve children in search work - it is dangerous. I think those who want to do this will still do it. So let them do this after special training with experienced search engines and become followers of a noble cause, and not join the ranks of black diggers. And besides, search work includes not only practical work on the ground, but also work with documents, in archives, on computers, with people, etc. Therefore, the case in the search teams is everything - both by desires and by forces.
This year, other schoolchildren could come to the search site. True, so far only on the tour. The search engines introduced them to the peculiarities of their work, then they continued the conversation in the camp by the fire.
Earlier, in the 60-ies, there were search teams - "red trackers". They had practically no access to the archives, but could communicate with the participants and witnesses of military events. Now, on the contrary: there are very few people left who have gone through all that horror called “war” and can tell about those years, but they have access to archival documents, and they can be viewed without leaving home. And it gives the opportunity to learn a lot, to establish the fate of many people. The materials collected by the “Red Rangers” will help in the work - they need to be found and brought together.
Where search work was carried out, the village of Novoprimorsky is now located; in 1941-1943, the Mius-front line took place here and fierce battles took place.
There are few eyewitnesses and participants of those days, so the story from their lips is a living story. And now - memories of these battles, a living witness and participant in these events, Mikhail Vladimirovich Semikin:
“I got into the army by age. In February, the 1943 was given the cry: for those who were born on the 1925, get together and go to the village of Mechetinskaya. The next day, the young recruits gathered and after lunch went on foot to their destination. At the passing of the Farewell, they spent the night and the next day came to Bataysk, and from there - to Rostov. There we were built by height and taken away to whom. Several people, including me, left in Rostov, to study at the regimental school. We lodged with Rostovites, we studied for almost three months (February, March, April), and on May 4 we were sent to the front under Matveyev Kurgan.
Soon I was sent with Andrei Litvinenko to intelligence. Newbies were not sent to battle, they were taught. First, a few days went to inspect the area, only then went to the reconnaissance, checked the strength of the enemy, took the language.
Participated in the expulsion of the Germans from the same high-rise, which dominated us. 22 May received the first baptism of fire. First he fought with a carbine, and only then gave a machine gun. They stayed there in May, June, and on July 5 the battle of Kursk began. We were taken to the north and moved to the village of Kuybyshevo, on August 18 the offensive began and we went to Saur-Mogila, a mound in the Shakhtyorsky district of Donetsk region, one of the highest points of the Donetsk ridge (277,9 m). At the top of the mound were guard post and fortifications Mius-front. We took it 1 September.
The veteran speaks reluctantly, as if by force of returning himself to those bloody war days. It is hard to worry again. And sometimes the memories come back in a dream - along with youth and fire, death, blood.
“After Mius, we were left to be reformed and sent first to the village Pervozvanovka, Voroshilovgrad region,” the war participant continues to recall. - We stayed there for a month, and only then sent to Zaporizhia region in Chekhovgrad, from there to Kakhovka and to Perekop. We went to the right flank of Perekop, and then we were transferred to the left flank - to the lake Sivash. 10 November wounded me, was sent to Melitopol to the hospital, from there - to the city of Donetsk. The wounds did not heal for a long time, and I was taken to Tbilisi, on an x-ray. The picture showed that a fragment is sitting, removed it, and only then everything slowly healed.
We were kept in the hospital until April, after discharge we were sent to Armavir, and then to the city of Beslan with the conclusion: not suitable for combatant, fit for service in the rear. There was formed the 24 battalion for transporting Studebaker machines and cargo from Iran. They came to us in columns through Iran from the Persian Gulf. Our battalion on railway platforms shipped Studebakers on fronts.
2 May 1945, we were in Odessa, 4 May plunged, and 5 May left in the direction of Austria. When the train arrived in Zhmerinka, Vinnitsa region, we heard volleys and cannonade. The main carriage said: "Victory!".
Happy, having unloaded the last cars, we went to Novocherkassk and home. ”
The story is contained in a few lines, and his pain and suffering from the experience will remain in the heart forever. And let everything be left behind, but the story of the future is built from the past and the present.
Until now, the remains of Soviet soldiers who died in battles, but not buried, in most cases - nameless, are found throughout the neighborhood, where Mius-Front passed.
During the reconstruction of the aqueduct in the village of Novoprimorsky along Zelenaya Street, an excavator bucket suddenly, along with the ground, raised human remains. Having stopped the tractor, local residents began to rake a trench with their hands, collecting skulls and bones. There were a lot of them. Someone began to call the village administration. Soon came its employees, the precinct, employees of the regional search club "Memory - Search" Vladimir Evsigneev, Sergey Lisachenko and Yuri Laptii, who began further excavations.
The very next day, the search engines "raised" all the remains, total - twenty-seven fighters. Weapons did not have. Pots, gas mask, mugs, spoons, coins, pieces of newspaper. Just in this place was the second line of defense of our troops.
The first guess of the search engines is a destroyed dugout in which, after heavy shelling or airstrike, they buried the dead, and then, after the battle, they died in battle. Such conclusions were made because the remains lying below were dissected by splinters, in the upper ones - traces of bullet wounds. One of the remains belonged, apparently, to the deceased nurse.
The fact that they were buried in the dugout is strongly said. Apparently, in a hurry, in the interval between battles or shelling, they only managed to cover the bodies, if a shell or a bomb didn’t do it for the living. Even after many decades, taking into account the sediment layer of the soil, burial was discovered just half a meter deep.
Elena Anatolyevna Kuznetsova, the hostess of the house, at the very gate of which the remains lay, now remembers that she almost every night had a dream, after which in the morning she wanted to go to the cemetery to remember the dead, to put a candle. Their family built a house here in 1966, and did not suspect that in two steps there was a military burial.
The search engines found only four soldiers' medallions, which were sent for examination to Rostov to the Interior Ministry laboratory. Employees of the military enlistment office drew up a report on the found burial. And now the remains of the soldiers until their names are clarified (if possible, of course) will be stored in the administration of the Primorsky settlement. Then they again, but solemnly, betray the earth.
This year, several search teams raised the remains of 60 fighters in the area from Novoprimorsky settlement to Bolshaya Neklinovka. According to the stories of search engines, there were among them infantrymen, telecommunications operators, and a nurse. It was possible to establish the names of only five soldiers.
Among them - Nikolai Mikhailovich Geguzh, a native of the city of Rostov-on-Don, technician weapons workshops 100-th separate communications regiment. He went missing in July 1942.
Another Red Army man went to the front of Grozny. This is Alexey Zubkov. He went missing in December 1941 of the year. Alexander Stefanovich Chubukin was called to the Red Army from the Krasnodar Territory. Ivan Stepanovich Starodumov went to the front in the first days of the war - July 2 1941 from the Stalingrad region. The found medallions - capsules, in which a sheet with the data of a fighter was invested, helped to identify the names and find the relatives and friends of these fighters. The name of the fifth warrior was scratched on a flask - Fomenko TA, a Red Army man.
The search engines have found the relatives of these fighters: in Russia, in Ukraine, in Israel. People, having received the news that their families had been waiting for over 65 years, came to the village of Novoprimorsky.
- It so happened that I received the news about the fate of the pope on my birthday on October 27. On the eve at home, in Ukraine, I watched a TV show about reburial in the Zaporozhye region and thought: “If I could find my father ...” And the next day, my son, who lives in Odessa, said that he had received news about the fate of his grandfather via the Internet. It was the best gift for my birthday. I was overwhelmed with joy, joy through tears, - Zubkov's son, Vladimir Alekseevich Zubkov, shared his feelings.
His daughter Vera, her husband, and all her relatives came to say goodbye to Nikolai Mikhailovich Geguz.
“We didn't know anything about the father.” For many years looking for him. They sent inquiries to the military registration and enlistment office, to the archives of the Ministry of Defense, and he, it turns out, has been with us all these years, just an hour from the hometown. For us, his relatives, today is a very significant and long-awaited day, ”said Vera Nikolaevna.
Relatives of the fighters brought with them family heirlooms - photos of their soldiers. They were young, beautiful, full of strength.
Basically, the remains of our soldiers were raised on the fields where the German line of defense was passing, where the first Taganrog offensive operation unsuccessfully ended in December 1941.
Several search teams worked here. The remains of 29 fighters raised search engines from the Memory-Search club (the Don, Zvezda and Miussky height teams) in the village of Novoprimorsky; 15 fighters raised the Mius-Front squad, 14 - the school and student teams of the Memory club -Search "during the Memory Watch, the search engines of the Skif squad raised the remains of a sailor and a nurse on the Sambek Heights.
The burial site was chosen obelisk soldiers-liberators at the entrance to Novoprimorsky. To him, villagers come on Victory Day and Liberation Day. There is already a mass grave of Soviet soldiers.
On November 12 came and came hundreds of people. The cadets of the Neklinovsk flight school and members of the Don military history museum stood up at the obelisk at the guard of honor; residents of Novoprimorsky, delegations of rural settlements, searchers, representatives of the district administration, and the district organization of veterans lined up in a column.
The head of the regional club "Memory-Search" V.K. Shcherbanov addressed the district administration with a proposal to continue to bury the found remains of Soviet soldiers at the Sambek Heights memorial and handed over to the pupils of Novoprimorsk high school things that were raised along with the fighters - a bowler hat, a mug, a bayonet.
The search team Don donated and handed over pouches to the relatives of the Miusean land in which their loved ones rest.
The requiem for the dead was served by the rector of the church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul Archpriest Daniel Dovydenko.
The solemn ceremony of farewell to the fallen soldiers ended with the laying of a garland of flowers at a memorial plaque at the obelisk, wreaths from the Pokrovsky, Varenovsky, Primorsky and Sambek settlements, bouquets of flowers from the residents of Novoprimorsky to the new mass grave and a triple salute.
The story of a find
Also during the search, a flask was found, which managed to read the name - Chef. Next - the remains of a soldier. It was Peter Chef. It turned out that in the village of Oblivskaya, on Semashko Street, his brother George Yakovlevich Chef lives. In the family of his parents - Jacob and Antonina Chef - there were seven children: six sons and a daughter. Georgii Yakovlevich, the youngest, was left alone. His memory keeps many pages of family history.
Surname Chef is of German origin. Its carriers once inhabited the Alsace-Lorraine region between France and Germany. During the reign of Catherine the Great, they were resettled to Russia, not far from St. Petersburg, and their surname was written in German style with two letters “f” at the end.
Jacob Chef was born in 1877 year. His parents lived in the town of Kosmodemyansk, not far from Nizhny Novgorod. Years in 12 father took him to the fair in Nizhny Novgorod. The merchant Mochalov from the village of Oblivskaya took the teenager into his service with the condition of giving the boy an education. Over time, the merchant began to teach the executive, responsible Jacob, to trade, trusted him large sums of money, and commissioned various transactions.
One of the fair days in the village of Chernyshevskaya, Yakov met Antonina Novoseltseva, who was 11 younger than Yakov and came from a wealthy family - her parents had a shop.
Antonina gave birth to her husband 13 children, but six of them died in childhood, Jacob and his wife raised and raised seven. In 1910, Alexey was born, then Alexander, Dmitry, Leo, Zoya, Peter, and George in 1928. Yakov, who worked as a clerk for the merchant, soon began to trade independently, bought the manufactory in Ivanovo and sold it in the village of Oblivskaya. Hard times came for the family with the establishment of the so-called NEP (new economic policy). Jacob, having a trade vein, resisted to the last - he paid exorbitant taxes as much as he could. But because of the growing requisitions he went bankrupt, he was forced to leave and hide for a while with his relatives in Armenia. And his family was waiting for dispossession. Carts had already arrived in the courtyard, on which Antonina and the children should have been taken out of the village, but she flatly refused to go, citing the fact that Zoya was sick with scarlet fever. They are not touched. But they had to endure the terrible famine of 1933 of the year. Mother was difficult to feed a large family, and Alexander took Leo and Zoya to his relatives.
The family lost two older brothers, first Dmitry, who went missing in the 1928 year in Leningrad, where he worked at the tractor factory, and then the older Alexey, who fell ill and died in the 1939 year. During the war, Peter Chef went missing, the remains of which and a flask could be found by search engines in the Mius-front area.
Lev, Alexander and Zoe were members of the Great Patriotic War. The head of the family, Jacob Chef, lived 88 for years and passed away in 1965. Antonina Chef survived her husband by 17 years, dying in 93 years.
The history of the relatives of Peter Chef is worthy of telling in more detail about her, since the history of the war years is surprisingly concentrated in her.
Alexander burned twice in tank
Born 12 September 1912. After graduating from junior high school he worked in the city of Erivan, Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories as a laboratory assistant, and then as deputy director of the elevator. In the year 1937 was repressed, a year and eight months later he was acquitted, with no further criminal record. In 1940, he married Maria Leskony, in 1941, their daughter Yevgeny was born. When the war began, he was the commander of the T-34 tank, participated in the Battle of Stalingrad. In a fierce battle, his tank burned down, but the crew survived, Alexander himself received a concussion. When the second tank burned down in battle, the crew survived again. Tankmen had such an expression: “A tank is a coffin on four,” and Alexander said: “A tank is a house on four.” He was awarded the medals "For Courage", "For the Defense of Stalingrad", the Order of the Red Star as a participant in the Battle of Kursk. He also had other awards: the medal "For Military Merit", "For the victory over Germany", the medal of Poland "For crossing the Oder-Neisse", commemorative medals, the Order of the Patriotic War. Fate took care of him.
As part of the 1 of the Belorussian Front stormed Berlin, signed the walls of the Reichstag. In 1945, he moved his wife and daughter, Eugene, to the occupation zone, where his daughter Faina was born in 1947. In 1949, Alexander Yakovlevich was transferred to the North Caucasus Military District. He died in the 1956 year at the exercises.
Leo: Labor Front
Born 17 February 1918 year in the village of Oblivskaya. Lev graduated from a school in Moscow, entered the technical school and received a specialty in zootechnics. He worked in the city of Omsk, then moved to the village of Oblivskaya. The war began, the Germans began to attack. Lev accompanied the herds of cattle during the evacuation, since he was not subject to military recruitment, because he had lost an eye as a result of an accident in childhood. But when Oblivskaya was released, Lev Yakovlevich left with the troops, served in the construction battalion, participated in the restoration of crossings, bridges. Twice at the front he met with his sister Zoya - in the city of Odessa and in Romania. He was awarded commemorative medals. After the war, he married Maria Shmeleva, a primary school teacher at the Obliv school. In 1953, they adopted the boy Basil.
Lev Yakovlevich worked as a zoo technician, in 1958 he became the chairman of the Zhdanov collective farm, then the chief zoo technician of the district. He was repeatedly elected deputy of the village council of people's deputies, as a communist participated in the party life of the district. In 1981, he moved to the city of Volgograd, where he was buried in 1991.
Zoya: a teacher in a military overcoat
Born in 1920 year. After graduating from school, she entered the Novocherkassk Teacher's Institute. Since the beginning of the war with a diploma in her hands, Zoya went to her native village of Oblivskaya. The front line was approaching, in the village there was a sorting evacuation hospital where Zoe worked as a nurse. Together with other fragile girls, she transferred the seriously wounded to the wards, looked after them, changed them, disinfected and repaired their clothes.
Together with the victorious march of Soviet soldiers moved and the hospital. So Zoe was in the city of Odessa, then in Romania, Hungary. On the way to the Hungarian city of Sopron, the train was very strong, there were terrible shooting, running around, noise in front. The train stopped. On the platform, everyone ran, shouting: “Hurray! Victory! ”, Danced, fired in the air. The Hungarians embraced and treated the Russians. So Zoe remembered Victory Day. But the hospital was disbanded only in 1947 year. For her services to the Motherland, Zoya Yakovlevna was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, the medal of Marshal Zhukov.
After the war, she returned to the village of Oblivskaya. However, the schools were already staffed. And then a letter came from a friend saying that they needed teachers in the city of Krasny Luch. So in March 1948, right in the soldier's overcoat, Zoya came to the eight-year school №15. The pupils were afraid of the new teacher, but everyone knew for sure that she was strict but fair.
In 1956, Zoe married a miner, Vladimir Poluektov. In 1960, their son, Victor, was born.
All future life Zoya Yakovlevna devoted to raising children. After graduating from absentia Taganrog Pedagogical Institute, worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature.
Peter, who was found on Mius Front
Born in 1923 year. In the Obliv school was one of the best students. Mischievous and cheerful, he loved sports, shook a pound kettlebell, played volleyball and football perfectly. He studied at the Stalingrad Artillery School. In 1942, an accelerated graduation of the cadets of the school took place, Peter was sent to the Southern Front as commander of an anti-tank artillery platoon. In each letter, Peter wrote home: “Mom, I’ll go to Berlin anyway,” but this was not to be. He went missing and was found seventy years later in the Mius-front area. He was 21 year. Information about his awards is not. The name of Pyotr Yakovlevich is entered in the Book of the dead war veterans, natives of the Rostov region, and carved on the memorial in the village of Oblivskaya.
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