We remember, we are proud of the “heroes of the Soviet Union n.a. vilkov, p.i
WE REMEMBER, WE ARE PROUD
“Heroes of the Soviet Union N.A. Vilkov, P.I. Ilyichev"
1. Introduction.
2. Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Aleksandrovich Vilkov
Biography of N. A. Vilkov
3. Hero of the Soviet Union Pyotr Ivanovich Ilyichev
Biography of P.I. Ilyichev
4. The feat of heroes
5. Memory of heroes
6. Conclusion
7. Used Books
Introduction
1. The Great Patriotic War ended on May 9, 1945 with the surrender of German troops, but the Second World War continued for Far East our country with militarist Japan until September 2, 1945.
Back in February 1945 on Yalta Conference The USSR undertook to enter the war with Japan (Japan was an ally of Germany) two or three months after the victory over Germany on the condition of returning to it what was lost by Russia as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. (South Sakhalin, Kuril Islands).
The entire company in the Far East lasted 24 days. Japanese troops lost 84 thousand people. During the hostilities, the losses of the Soviet side amounted to more than 36 thousand people. For services to the Fatherland, 308 thousand Soviet soldiers received orders and medals, 87 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
On the night of August 8-9, 1945, the USSR, and with it the Pacific Navy, entered the war with Japan.
Soviet armed forces- army troops, aviation and navy were to conduct combat operations in Manchuria, Korea, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, that is, at the front, with a length of over 6 thousand km.
An unfading feat in these battles was accomplished by Pacific sailors Nikolai Vilkov and a very young one - Pyotr Ilyichev.
1. Biography of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Vilkov
Nikolai Alexandrovich Vilkov
The hero of the USSR,
Sailor, foreman of the 1st class.
Nikolai Alexandrovich Vilkov was born on December 2, 1918 in the village of IlinskoeZavolzhsky districtIvanovo regionin a peasant family. Russian .
In 1939 year graduated from the Gorky River School. He worked as an assistant captain of the steamship "Maxim Gorky" of the East Siberian River Shipping Company. Since 1939 in the Navy.
Participant Soviet-Japanese War 1945 of the year. Boatswain of the mother ship "North" (Peter and Paul Naval Base, Pacific Fleet).
Awards:
The order of Lenin
2. Biography of Peter Ivanovich Ilyichev
Pyotr Ivanovich Ilyichev
The hero of the USSR,
helmsman, sailor
Pyotr Ivanovich Ilyichev was born in 1927 in the village of Pugachevka Nizhneomsky districtOmsk region in a peasant family. Russian. He graduated from the 4th grade, worked on a collective farm. V Soviet army since November 1944 of the year. He graduated from the joint school of the training detachment of the Pacific Fleet.
Member of the Soviet-Japanese war of 1945.
Steering patrol boat"SK-253" (6th division patrol ships, Petropavlovsk Naval Base, Pacific Fleet)
Awards:
The order of Lenin
3. The feat of heroes.
H Ikolay Vilkov and Pyotr Ilyichev served on Pacific Fleet. The first was already a sailor with experience, had the rank of foreman of the 1st article, served as the boatswain of the floating base "Sever" of the Petropavlovsk naval base, the second only at the end of 1944 was called to active service and was the helmsman of the patrol boat SK-253 of the 6th division patrol ships of the Petropavlovsk naval base. But it so happened that both at the beginning of the war with Japan ended up in the same battalion of marines, in the company of Senior Lieutenant Kashchei. Vilkov was a platoon commander, Ilyichev in this platoon was an ordinary sailor.
On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union, true to its allied obligations, entered the war with Japan.
In the very first days of the fighting, the Red Army delivered decisive blows to the enemy in Manchuria and Sakhalin, and thus favorable conditions were created for the liberation of the Kuril Islands, truly Russian lands captured by Japan at different times.
On the night of August 17, 1945, the Soviet warships with the landing force they left their base and headed for the shores of Shumshu Island, the northernmost in the Kuril chain. This landing also included a battalion of marines. And the next day, the landing of troops on Shumshu began. This island was the main stronghold of the Kuril Islands. On the island, the Japanese had an infantry brigade, 60 tanks, an air defense regiment, a fortress artillery regiment, various special units and subunits. The island was fortified with engineering structures - numerous pillboxes.
In the group of the first throw, there was a platoon of the communist foreman of the 1st article Nikolai Vilkov. Because of the shoal, the ships could not approach the shore. Under enemy fire, the paratroopers rushed into the water and wade to the shore. Not allowing the enemy to come to their senses, the sailors swiftly attacked the coastal fortifications and captured the bridgehead. Under the cover of naval artillery, the main forces of the landing force entered the battle. In the battle, an enemy counterattack was repulsed, 8 Japanese tanks were destroyed.
The battle for Hill 171 took on a particularly fierce character. This was the key position of the Japanese. At the top, the enemy built a reinforced concrete pillbox with two embrasures. In addition, the height was entangled in a network of trenches with numerous machine-gun points.
The sailors went to storm the heights. In spite of big losses they kept moving forward. Vilkov's platoon was in the forefront here too. Next to the platoon - Ilyichev. He skillfully wielded a machine gun and grenades, came to the rescue of his comrades in time.
The company was already preparing for the last throw, when two embrasure pillboxes spoke at the top of the height. Its powerful fire pinned the sailors to the ground. Several daredevils surged forward and were mowed down by enemy fire...
And then the paratroopers saw how the commander himself crawled to the right embrasure. He threw a grenade, but it did not reach the target. Then Vilkov rose to his full height and rushed his body to the embrasure of the pillbox. She shut up...
And the left embrasure continued to pour lead rain on the paratroopers. Komsomolets Ilyichev was wounded, he ran out of grenades. The disk of the machine was also empty. And in front of the eyes of his comrades, he stands up to his full height and closes the left embrasure of the pillbox with his body. Dot finally choked. The sailors rushed to the top of the height in an unstoppable avalanche. The Red Banner flew up on her.
On August 23, Shumshu Island was completely liberated. Over 12,000 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner. And soon the entire Kuril ridge was in the hands of Soviet soldiers.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Nikolai Alexandrovich Vilkov and Pyotr Ivanovich Ilyichev were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Heroes from the Far East are buried on Shumshu Island.
Taking height
4. Eternal MEMORY
Nikolai Alexandrovich Vilkov
In the cities of Nizhny Novgorod, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Navoloki Monuments were erected in the Ivanovo region, and memorial plaques were erected in the village of Ilyinskoye and on the building of the Gorky River School.
Cape Pinnacle Point (Tower) in Avacha Bay was renamed Cape Vilkov.
The vessels of the Ministry of the River Fleet are named after him.
A street is named after him Vladivostok and Irkutsk.
The name of the hero is named street in the citySevero-Kurilsklocated on the neighboring island of Shumshu, the island of Paramushir.
On November 27, 1979, by the decision of the bureau of the Volgograd City Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, for the great work on the military-patriotic education of teenagers, the Volgograd Club of Young Sailors with a flotilla was named after the Hero of the Soviet Union, foreman of the first article N. A. Vilkov.
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk - bust on Glory Square.
Forever enrolled in the lists of the military unit.
Monument in Navoloki, Ivanovo region
Nizhny Novgorod
monument in Nizhny Novgorod
EVERLASTING MEMORY
Pyotr Ivanovich Ilyichev
Busts of the Hero are installed in the village of Pugachevka and in Paratunka village Elizovsky district of the Kamchatka region.
A bay and a cape on the Kamchatka Peninsula are named after him,
streets in Omsk, Vladivostok, Severo-KurilskSakhalin region, in the village of Nizhnyaya Omka,
State farm in the village of Antonovka, Nizhneomsky district.
MKOU "Antonovskaya secondary school" in February 2013 was named after the Hero of the Soviet Union P.I. Ilyichev.
Fishing trawler in the Kamchatka region,
Project 1171 landing ship of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet.
On July 27, 1958, a monument was erected to Ilyichev in the village of Zavoyko (Kamchatka).
Also, a monument to the Hero was erected in 1976 in Omsk.
In June 1973, a monument to the hero was opened in the pioneer camp named after P. Ilyichev, made by the Omsk sculptor F. D. Bugaenko.
The celebration was attended by the mother of the hero Natalya Sergeevna Ilyicheva; a friend of P. Ilyichev and an eyewitness to his immortal feat A. N. Dodukh; participant of the last battle of Pyotr Ilyichev, Omsk artist N. A. Kuzmin;
the poet T. Belozerov, who wrote poems about the feat of our countryman, the composer B. Yarkov, the author of a song about him, the journalist M. P. Shapran, who was the first to write about the feat of P. Ilyichev on the pages of the Pacific Red Star.
Forever enrolled in the lists of the crew of the ship of the Pacific Fleet.
Monument in the village of Pugachevka Nizhneomsky district
Kamchatka, pos. Zavoyko
Vladivostok, st. Ilyicheva, 32
5. Conclusion
There are many heroes in our country, we are very proud of them!
The years of the terrible war are moving further and further into the past, but the feat of the people who stood up to defend the Fatherland will live forever in the memory of the people. One of young heroes- Pyotr Ivanovich Ilyichev. Died at the age of 18...
The Siberian poet and scientist P. Dravert has the following lines:
Let it be short
your life path
But you can too
shine brightly,
Leaving alive
exciting track...
It was such an exciting trace that Nikolai Vilkov and Pyotr Ilyichev left, having lived to an offensive short life leaving forever his name in the good memory of people.
6. Literature used
Gritchenko A.A., Meerovich E.I. Feat on the Kuriles. M., 1975. S. 3-47.
Gold Stars of the Pacific. Vladivostok. 1982, pp. 159–163.
Forever in line. M., 1959. Book. 2. S. 152–164.
Forever in line. Album. Issue. 1. M., 1971. S. 200.
Internet resources
Boatswain of the mother ship "Sever" of the Petropavlovsk naval base of the Pacific Fleet, foreman of the 1st class. The hero of the USSR.
Born on December 9, 1918 in the village of Ilyinskoye, Zavolzhsky District, Ivanovo Region, in a peasant family. Russian.
Member of the CPSU (b) since 1945. Lived in the city of Navoloki. Here he graduated from high school, worked at a textile mill.
In 1939 he graduated from the Gorky River School. He worked as an assistant captain in the East Siberian River Shipping Company.
In the same year he was called to serve in the Navy. Served in the Pacific Fleet.
In 1945, the foreman of the 1st article Vilkov N.A. was promoted to a platoon leader in a Marine Corps.
On the night of August 17, 1945, Soviet warships with landing troops left the base and headed for the shores of Shumshu Island, the northernmost in the Kuril chain.
The next day, the landing began. This island was the main stronghold of the Japanese in the Kuriles
(the Japanese had an infantry brigade, 60 tanks, an air defense regiment, an artillery regiment, various special units and subunits).
The island was fortified with engineering structures and numerous pillboxes.
Platoon Vilkov N.A. landed one of the first. Because of the shallow water, the ships were unable to approach the shore.
Under enemy fire, the paratroopers rushed into the water and wade to the shore.
The sailors swiftly attacked the coastal structures and seized the bridgehead. Under the cover of artillery, the main forces of the landing force entered the battle.
The battle for Hill 171 took on a particularly fierce character. This was the key position of the Japanese.
The approaches to the height were covered by an enemy pillbox and a network of trenches with machine guns. The sailors went on the assault.
Suddenly, the embrasures of the pillbox started talking at the top. The fire pinned the sailors to the ground. Then Vilkov crawled to the embrasure.
He threw a grenade, but it did not reach the target. Then he rose to his full height and closed the embrasure with his body.
His feat was repeated by the sailor Ilyichev P.I., who covered the left embrasure with himself.
Dot was silent. The sailors went on the attack, captured the height and hoisted a red flag over it. On August 22, the island was liberated.
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 14, 1945 No.
Foreman of the 1st article Vilkov Nikolai Alexandrovich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Awarded the Order of Lenin. ON THE. Vilkov is forever enrolled in the lists of the crew of the ship of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet.
The name of N. Vilkov is landing craft Red Banner Pacific Fleet.
Buried on Shumshu Island. Monuments to the Hero were erected in Nizhny Novgorod, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Navoloky, Ivanovo Region,
on the territory of the connection of submarines KTOF in Vilyuchinsk (Kamchatka).
In the village of Ilyinskoye, on the school building in the city of Navoloki, on the building of the Nizhny Novgorod River School - memorial plaques.
A bust was erected at the school building in the city of Navoloki.
Cape Pinnacle Point (Tower) in Avacha Bay was renamed Cape Vilkov. Riverboats bear his name.
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The streets are named after them.
Heroes of the Great Patriotic War
Nikolai Alexandrovich Vilkov
The hero of the USSR. During the assault on height 171 on the island of Shumshu, occupied by the Japanese, he repeated the feat of Alexander Matrosov, closed the embrasure of the pillbox with his chest.
N. A. Vilkov was born in 1918 in the village of Ilyinskoye, Ivanovo Region. In 1935 he entered the Gorky River School, in 1939 he graduated with honors. According to the distribution, he was sent to work on the East Siberian River Fleet. Here, before being drafted into the army, he worked as a senior assistant to the captain on the steamships "XX MYUD" and "Maxim Gorky".
Served N. A. Vilkov in the Pacific Fleet. He began serving as a helmsman, became the boatswain of the ship. In May 1945 he joined the party. During the years of service he had 16 promotions. N. A. Vilkov also served in the Petropavlovsk naval base.
On August 18, 1945, at 04:20, landing craft, one of which was N.A. Vilkov, approached the landing site on Shumshu Island. The first to rush into the water were the fighters of the shock battalion of Major T. A. Pochtarev. Despite heavy enemy fire, two trenches were captured on the move, but one more remained. Hill 171 was ahead.
A fierce battle ensued for heights. Machine-gun bursts fired from each Japanese pillbox. The attackers suffered heavy losses.
N. A. Vilkov threw a grenade into the embrasure with a sharp jerk. For a minute, the machine gun fell silent, and the paratroopers went on the attack, but again lay under fire. And then the seriously wounded sailor went to the pillbox, closed the embrasure with his body.
Petr Ivanovich Ilyichev
Pyotr Ilyichev, following Nikolai Vilkov, at the same height of 171, closed the embrasure of the Japanese pillbox with his chest, repeating the feat of his comrade-in-arms.
P. I. Ilyichev spent his childhood in the Siberian village of Pugachevka, Omsk region. The Komsomol member Ilyichev was eighteen years old when he entered his first, which became the last battle. The day before, he wrote to his mother: “Today we are going into battle. Don’t worry, relatives, you don’t have to blush for me. I will fulfill my duty to the Motherland and I will keep the oath that I gave before the battle to the end.”
Pyotr Ilyichev and Nikolai Vilkov are buried not far from the pillbox. The monument erected here on the thirtieth anniversary of the Victory is simple - two concrete waves shot up. On them is a plate with the names of the Heroes of the Soviet Union Pyotr Ilyichev and Nikolai Vilkov.
Dmitry Grigorievich Ponomarev
For the skillful conduct of the landing operation to liberate the Northern Kuril Islands from the Japanese, the commander of the Petropavlovsk naval base, Captain 1st Rank Ponomarev, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on September 14, 1945.
D. G. Ponomarev was born on November 3, 1908 in Arkhangelsk. After graduating from the Arkhangelsk Marine College in 1929, he worked on the ships of the Sovtorgflot. In 1930 he was drafted into the Red Army. Service was in rifle regiment and at the end of it he returned to the merchant fleet. Working on ships, he went from a sailor of the 2nd class to the 3rd assistant to the captain.
In 1934 he was called to Navy. The following year, he was sent to the Pacific Fleet from the diving training detachment. Sailed in submarines. With the formation of the Petropavlovsk naval base on June 9, 1940, he was appointed its commander with the rank of captain of the III rank. The base was commanded by D. G. Ponomarev until the creation of the Kamchatka base on its basis military flotilla December 1, 1945.
During the Kuril landing operation on August 18–23, 1945, D. G. Ponomarev proved himself to be an experienced commander. Under his leadership, all detachments of ships - military and civilian - in the amount of 64 units, including boats and barges, clearly operated. All of them successfully made transitions from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the combat area, delivering troops and military equipment to the islands. The entire personnel of the Petropavlovsk naval base took part in the liberation of the Kuriles.
In 1948, D. G. Ponomarev graduated from the Academic Courses, and in 1954 he retired. Then he worked at industrial enterprises in Leningrad.
Gavriil Fedorovich Kirdishchev
G. F. Kirdishchev - border guard, Hero of the Soviet Union.
He was born in 1920 in the village of Priozernoye, Akmola region, Kazakh SSR. After a seven-year period, Kirdishchev graduated from the Petropavlovsk (Kazakhstan) FZU and worked as a mechanic in a locomotive depot. He carried out military service at one of the border outposts in Kamchatka. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the head of the outpost department, G. F. Kirdishchev, began to ask for the front. In 1942, the Kamchatka border guard graduated from the short-term officer courses of the Saratov School of the NKVD troops and was appointed deputy chief of the 8th outpost of the 13th border regiment, and then its chief. His outpost followed the Soviet troops when they entered the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states. The outpost had to fight bandits, spies and individual Nazi units that penetrated the rear. On July 13, 1944, the outpost of junior lieutenant G.F. Kirdishchev carried out the task of combing the area near the small Lithuanian village of Pustovalovka, where it collided with part of the Nazi troops in the amount of 270 people. 30 border guards fought a superior enemy and won. In this battle, G. F. Kirdishchev was mortally wounded.
For the destruction and capture of an almost ten times superior enemy, valor, courage and heroism, by the Decree of the USSR PVS of March 24, 1945, G. F. Kirdishchev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Alexander Piragis. "Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The streets of the city tell"
(2nd ed., Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 2000).
The book is published with updating and addition of illustrative material.
Nikolai Vilkov was born on December 9, 1918 in the village of Ilyinskoye, now the Zavolzhsky district of the Ivanovo region. He grew up in a peasant family. Lived in the city of Navoloki. He graduated from an incomplete high school here, worked at the Paris Commune textile factory. In 1939 he graduated from the Gorky River School. He worked as an assistant to the captains of the ships "XX MYUD" and "Maxim Gorky" of the East Siberian River Shipping Company.
Since December 1939 in the Navy. He served in the Pacific Fleet, was the boatswain of the mother ship "North" of the Petropavlovsk naval base in Kamchatka. Member of the CPSU (b) since May 1945. When the Soviet-Japanese war began, foreman of the 1st article Vilkov N.A. was appointed to the post of platoon commander in a Marine Corps company under the command of Lieutenant Kashchei. On the night of August 17, 1945, Soviet warships with landing troops left their base and headed for the shores of Shumshu Island, the northernmost in the Kuril chain. The next day, the landing began. This island was the foremost and most powerful stronghold of the Japanese in the Kuriles. On the island, the enemy had an infantry brigade, 60 tanks, an air defense regiment, a fortress artillery regiment, various special units and subunits. The island was fortified with engineering structures and numerous pillboxes.
Vilkov's platoon was one of the first to land. Because of the shallow water, the ships were unable to approach the shore. Under enemy fire, the paratroopers rushed into the water and wade to the shore. Not allowing the enemy to come to their senses, the sailors swiftly attacked the coastal structures and seized the bridgehead. Under the cover of naval artillery, the main forces of the landing force entered the battle. The battle for Hill 171, which dominated the area, took on a particularly fierce character. This was the key position of the Japanese. The approaches to the height were covered by an enemy pillbox on top and a network of trenches with machine-gun emplacements. The sailors went on the assault. Despite heavy losses, they moved forward. Suddenly, the embrasures of the pillbox started talking at the top. Powerful fire pinned the Marines to the ground. Several daredevils rushed forward, but were immediately mowed down by machine-gun bursts. Then Vilkov crawled to the right embrasure. He threw a grenade, but it did not reach the target. Then he rose to his full height and closed the embrasure with his body.
His feat was repeated by the sailor Ilyichev P.I., who covered the left embrasure with himself. Dot was completely silent. The sailors went on the attack, captured the height and hoisted a red flag over it. On August 22, the island was completely liberated, and soon the entire Kuril ridge.
For the exemplary performance of command assignments on the front of the fight against the Japanese militarists and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 14, 1945, foreman of the 1st article Vilkov Nikolai Alexandrovich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin.
He was buried on Shumshu Island, Kuril Ridge, Sakhalin Region. Monuments to the Hero were erected in Nizhny Novgorod, Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky, Navolokah of the Ivanovo Region, on the territory of the KTOF submarine junction in Vilyuchinsk (Kamchatka). In the village of Ilyinskoye, on the school building in the city of Navoloki, on the building of the Nizhny Novgorod River School, there are memorial plaques. A bust was erected at the school building in the city of Navoloki. Cape Pinnacle Point (Tower) in Avacha Bay was renamed Cape Vilkov.
Riverboats bore his name. Forever enrolled in the lists of the crew of the ship of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet. The name of the Hero is the landing ship of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet.
A sailor who repeated the feat of Alexander Matrosov, covering the pillbox when taking Shumshu, sailed one navigation on the Angara
On August 18, 1945, the foreman of the 1st article, Nikolai Vilkov, during the landing of a naval assault on the island of Shumshu, captured by Japanese samurai, lay down on the embrasure of the pillbox. It was the first and only battle of a 26-year-old sailor who served in Kamchatka throughout the war. Already on September 14, the 45th, a decree was issued conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to Nikolai Vilkov - posthumously. The whole country, mother, brother, sister, beloved girl, learned about his feat.
Vilkov's name is associated with our city. Although Nikolai was originally from the Volga, he was drafted into the army from Irkutsk - one navigation, in the summer of 1939, he sailed on the Angara. For many years, the captain of the East Siberian Shipping Company, Viktor Vertyankin, has been collecting information about Nikolai in a plump folder. Ever since the time of service in the navy, the Irkutsk citizen has ignited an interest in what kind of guy Kolya Vilkov was in life - a hero who covered combat machine guns with his body.
Viktor Vertyankin was serving in the Pacific Fleet when he came across an appeal from the mother of Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Vilkov to sailors. It was published in the newspaper "Combat Watch" and dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Great Victory over fascism. Bearing in mind that Nikolai Vilkov had worked for the East Siberian Shipping Company before the war, Victor, through the editorial office of the newspaper, found the address of the hero's mother and wrote her a letter to Ryazan. The sailor was answered, a warm correspondence ensued. The Siberian talked about the service, about himself, asked about Kolya. Agrippina Yakovlevna Vilkova, who lost her son in the war and lived in memories of him, Victor became like a native, reminded him.
In 1976, returning home after demobilization, Vertyankin stopped by the Vilkovs in Ryazan to see him. He spent two days with Nikolai's mother and sister, Olga, listening to stories and looking at family photos. After leaving, he received letters for a long time: first from Agrippina Yakovlevna, then, when she died in 1979, from Olga.
Already in Irkutsk, Vertyankin sought out the captains who, in 1939, together with Nikolai, worked on the Angara on the ship "XX MUD". I got acquainted with Ivan Pavlovich Ryazantsev, a participant in the landing on Shumsha, with the captains - our fellow countrymen, who after the war served at the Saratov floating base, from where Nikolai left for his first and last battle. I got some earth from the place where the sailor died. Viktor Vertyankin keeps all these memories as carefully as if the boy from the Volga were his brother. Listening to the captain, you imagine Nikolai as alive.
In the portrait, which was replicated in our textbooks, Nikolai looks like an epic hero. His appearance is clearly adjusted to the general canons and ideas about how the hero should be depicted. The mother did not recognize her son in this portrait, Viktor Vasilyevich shares. - The image of a hero in history is often canonized. Sometimes he is so canonized that no one believes him anymore. It turns out to be a kind of popular character - supposedly he was born and immediately prepared to accomplish a feat. In my opinion, usually all the heroes are former slobs. Good boys don't become heroes. And daredevils, reckless guys are capable of an impulse and a feat. I was very interested to know what Nikolai was like in life.
On the Volga
Nikolai Vilkov was born in 1918 on the Volga, in the village of Ilyinskoye, Ivanovo Region. He was the eldest son, after him Olga and Arkady appeared in the family. Nikolai's mother was very fond of, distinguished from other children, because he was in her family. She said: he is ours, Gruzdeva (her maiden name is Gruzdeva), and Olga and Arkady are Vilkovsky.
Their father was some kind of tumbleweed, - says Viktor Vasilyevich. - It is known that he was a participant in the first Japanese war, served somewhere in the east. As a child, his mother left him, he was homeless, so he did not understand family life. Agrippina Yakovlevna suffered with him for 12 years. When the children were born, he led a wild life, he was a runner. He left, abandoned his children, let's return - then his mother did not accept him. So he disappeared somewhere. Nicholas did not like him.
Attachment to the river at Kolya began, one might say, out of vital necessity. Ilinskoye was opposite the city of Navoloki, across the Volga. And Agrippina Yakovlevna worked in Navoloki at a textile factory, and she had to be transported back and forth by boat every day. Nicholas drove her.
Mother writes: “Everything happened: they fell under the waves (the steamer will pass - a big wave), and the wind, and the storm.” Nikolai coped, gained experience, became an excellent rower. He came to the Gorky River School (then a technical school) as a ready-made sailor, he was better than many in rowing and sailing. Starting from the second year, every summer Nikolai went to practice on the Volga, sailed three navigations - to Astrakhan, Kalinin, Moscow. Mother recalled that Nikolai sent home 50 rubles from the Moscow-Volga canal. Olga bought shoes. According to Agrippina Yakovlevna, these 50 rubles were more precious to her than a thousand.
big captain
In 1939, Nikolai received a diploma as a navigator.
After graduating from college, for some reason, without even stopping home, he goes straight from Gorky to Irkutsk, ”says Viktor Vasilyevich. - I think it was not a distribution, Nikolai himself wanted it that way.
Knowing our pre-war contingent, I can say that such people did not fly to us in those years, we did not have rivermen with a great education. Our old captains were of local upbringing, from a plow, from Rasputin's Angara villages. We grew up on the river since childhood. They were self-taught - certified navigators were not trained in Siberia at that time and were not distributed from the West. Most likely, Nicholas was sent here at his request. Why he chose Irkutsk, his mother does not know. Maybe he read something, according to the stories. Perhaps he thought that he knew the Volga, it's time to know the Siberian rivers.
I don’t know how he drove, but, according to the stories of our captains, he worked selflessly. Nikolai Tselishchev and Artemy Shchapov (now, of course, deceased) went to the "XX MYUD" ("20 years of International Youth Day") together with Vilkov. He was remembered as a very mobile, energetic person. Nikolay was a good sportsman, he was an excellent swimmer and taught children, he took his work seriously.
They were friends. “We will come to Irkutsk,” they said, “we are going, we are going through the garden of the Paris Commune, to the dance floor. There they danced and seized the girls. And what? Normal, morally healthy men came ashore.” And Nikolai with them - he was a handsome, prominent, stocky guy. But not huge growth, as many write about him. Like, a sailor of great stature got up ... There was nothing like that.
The Siberians looked at the brave sailor, of course. During the short summer of 1939, he must have broken more than one girl's heart. On this account, there is the following amorous story among the rivermen associated with the name of Vilkov.
During just one navigation, Nikolai managed to change two motor ships - he started on the "XX MYUD", and left for the army from the "Maxim Gorky". The official life, which was written after the death of the sailor, says: the captain's assistant Nikolai Vilkov quickly brought the ship "XX MUD" to the forefront, and then he was assigned to the captain of the "Maxim Gorky" - the old man Buldakov, so that he would help him to go to the forefront. Neither more nor less than some kid came from the Volga and began one by one to bring the steamers to the forefront. The version, frankly, does not stand up to criticism. In life, everything was a little different. The French in such cases say: look for a woman.
Nikolai was indeed assigned to XX MYUD. On this ship, together with Captain Maximov, his wife Masha sailed. Either a radio operator, or a cook, or just riding (it used to be in the order of things when the captains took their families with them) - now it's hard to say. And Captain Maksimov drank heavily. Masha began to glance at Nikolai, and mutual sympathy arose between them. The captain is a drunkard a drunkard, but all the same, he noticed the feeling that flared up between his wife and assistant. He somehow managed to write off Nikolai to the old man Buldakov through the personnel department. Thus, by exiling Vilkov to another ship, Maximov got rid of his young rival.
But at Maxim Gorky, Nikolai worked fine, - Viktor Vasilyevich laughs. - True, unfortunately, from Gorky, who could tell me about this, I did not find anyone.
Nikolai fell in love with Angara, and the Siberian river accepted him. Mother mentioned such lines from his letters: “Imagine, here I am standing on the bow, the ship is going - and I see the bottom, I see pebbles at the bottom.”
But we did not believe him, - said Agrippina Yakovlevna. - After all, the Volga is not the Angara.
Is it true? she asked Victor.
True, - Vertyankin answered her, - only in early spring. When dirty rivers do not flow into it. From the Angarsk bridge you look - the depth is six meters, all the pebbles are visible.
"I'm sitting on the edge of the world"
In 1939, immediately after navigation, Nikolai was called up for military service from Irkutsk. He is a full 20 years old. At that time, they were taken into the army from the age of nineteen, but the riverman had a reprieve - at first he studied, then he worked at the Angara. He was sent to Kamchatka to pull the soldier's strap. And, having served his years in the Navy at that time, perhaps Nikolai would have returned home alive and unharmed, but the Great Patriotic War began.
Vilkov was never a submariner, he worked on the shore, on naval floating bases, as a boatswain - first on the "North" in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, then, from June 45, on the "Saratov". What is a floating base? There is an old ship in the ocean bay, which has long served its age, the crew lives in it, resting after the campaign; household equipment, rigging, personal belongings of sailors are stored. Any ship, even the oldest, must have its own eye. The owner of the floating base, or rather the supply manager, was Nikolai Vilkov. Throughout the war, he had to manage paint, ropes, cables. And he dreamed, of course, about something else - to fight. From the first day he rushed to the front, constantly wrote reports. But the answer was always the same - to serve where the Motherland orders.
Service in the rear, away from hostilities, the inability to beat a fascist with a weapon in his hands became for Nikolai - a young, strong, healthy man - personal tragedies. The impotence to change anything tormented his soul. He complained to his mother more than once in letters: “My sister is at war, my brother is at war, and I am the eldest, such a big man, climbed to the ends of the world and live happily ever after.” Sitting on the edge of the world was not in his nature.
Reports from Vilkov to the command poured in with renewed vigor, after in 1942 the boatswain of the "North" learned about the feat of the marine, political officer Nikolai Filchenkov. Defending Sevastopol, five sailors under the command of Filchenkov fought against 22 fascist tanks, 10 of them were destroyed. Desperate marines with grenades threw themselves under the tank tracks. They were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. This case became known throughout the country. The news of him reached the Far East. Nikolai knew Filchenkov. He was his teacher: in Gorky, Filchenkov commanded the rowing section of Osoaviakhim, where Nikolai worked. The feat of the mentor made a deep impression on Vilkov, he began to rush to the front even more, but still received a refusal. And only in 1945, when events with Japan began to approach, he was answered: wait, your time will come.
Love and separation
Nicholas was supported by letters from his beloved girlfriend Lida Korovkina. They met at the Gorky River Technical School - Lida studied a year younger. When Nikolai left for Kamchatka, the girl was still finishing her studies. She worked navigation in 1940 as an assistant captain on a motor ship on the Moscow-Volga canal. During the war, Lydia was a navigator on a hospital ship on the Moscow-Gorky line. It transported the wounded along the Oka, Volga, Kama and to Perm, to the rear.
Nikolai and Lida corresponded throughout the war. Since 1939, for six long years, they have been apart, but they have retained their emotional attachment to each other.
To the modern generation, this will seem feigned, far-fetched, - says Viktor Vasilyevich, - but at that time it was so. People knew how to love, knew how to keep feelings, especially during the war years.
He called her to Kamchatka. She couldn't come to him. There was a war - the fleet was paramilitary, the rivermen went in uniform and obeyed the orders of wartime. After May 9, 1945, Nikolai and Lida agreed to meet - the girl agreed to come, they set a date. But for some reason (and Nikolai's mother is silent about this), Lida, not keeping her promise, did not come, and Nikolai stopped writing to her. Then Lida, justifying herself, sent him several letters, but Nikolai fell silent - he did not answer any of her messages.
Soon events began to unfold in the Far East - the war with Japan began. Nikolai, finally waiting for his time, volunteered to join the amphibious assault on Shumshu and died in his first battle. Lydia until the end of her life considered herself guilty of his death. She said, “I am to blame. If I had arrived then, nothing would have happened, Kolya would not have died.
Then Lydia got married and lived in Moscow, - Victor Vertyankin continues the story. - Her husband (there are some) was jealous of her past, the memory of Kolya. In the late 60s, Agrippina Yakovlevna and Olga Alexandrovna visited Lydia in Moscow, in her apartment. They talked about Kolya, remembered, cried. After sitting too long, they did not notice how the time flew by - the husband returned from work. Lydia introduced her guests as relatives from the city of Yuryevets (there is one on the Volga), where she comes from. The husband looked suspiciously, apparently guessing something. “We immediately decided to get out,” recalls Nikolai’s sister, “we quickly bowed and left.” And then a letter came to Ryazan from Lydia: after the guests left, her husband kept asking: “What, were there Vilkovskys?” and was angrily silent. Lydia was forced to keep Nikolai's letters at work, fearing that her husband, having found them, would destroy them.
But how does the story with the captain Masha fit into this?
With Lidia, Nikolai was serious, with Masha, probably, a light flirtation. Nicholas was not a monk. Still, the guy had a lot of years. If he was going to get married, he would. But he had a beautiful lady with whom he connected his family life.
And yet, his mother said, he connected his future with the sea. During the years in Kamchatka, the naval service entered into him, he fell in love with her very much. Organized, collected, Nikolai was born for the fleet. He wrote to his mother: “When the war is over, I will enter the Leningrad Higher naval school". But it was not destined for Nikolai Alexandrovich.
Double feat of paratroopers
Viktor Vertyankin says:
Nikolai, already a communist, was one of the first to sign up for the landing on Shumshu. He wasn't a Marine, of course. He was a volunteer. The spring that had been compressed in him all these five years of the war burst out in him in this desire - to go into the landing force.
Nikolay got into the first detachment of the marines, which was faced with the task of recapturing the bridgehead of the coast and holding it until the approach of the main forces. The sailors approached Shumsh, the northernmost island of the Kuril chain, on the morning of August 18, 1945. With great Japanese fire, with stubborn resistance from the samurai, they landed on the shore between Capes Kokutan and Kotomari on the east coast of the island and began to occupy a bridgehead. At the dominant height of 171 there were two Japanese pillboxes, sweeping through the entire space. Many sailors tried to get close to them, crawled through, but they were overtaken by a line and the guys fell. It was necessary to silence these points in order to seize the bridgehead.
Nikolai was considered an experienced fighter, he already had three stripes on shoulder straps - he was a foreman of the 1st article and deputy platoon commander. When he was going to battle, he dressed himself under the Dutchman - a sailor's flannel shirt with a collar - naval ensign. After the victory, he wanted to hoist it on the island.
And the Japanese machine guns did not stop. And Nikolai, seeing that people were falling, and realizing that something had to be done, crawled towards the pillbox. And behind him is the second sailor - Petya Ilyichev, very young, 18 years old. At first, Nikolai tried to throw grenades at the pillbox, he was wounded - his arm was broken. For a moment, the firing point fell silent, the sailors went on the attack, but it started working again. And again the fire, and again our sailors fall. All the grenades ran out, and then Nikolai, apparently, got up with good words - not “Long live Lenin and our party!”, But with something more weighty, and he himself fell on the embrasure. And after him, following his example, the young sailor Petya Ilyichev lay down on the second pillbox. This is such a double feat.
These seconds, while the Japanese were removing the bodies, were enough to lift the sailors' chains. They rushed and with the sea "Polundra!", Full of rage, threw embrasures. After that, fighting continued for several more days in Shumshu. The island was literally crammed with military equipment and fortifications. It took a lot of strength to break the will and resistance of the samurai.
When Nikolai was taken out of the battlefield, they found a flag stained with blood. The sailor was buried there, on the island, on the hillside. Less than a month later, Nikolai Vilkov and Pyotr Ilyichev were awarded the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union. Agrippina Yakovlevna did not know anything about the fact that her son had signed up for the landing. Mothers sent him things and 600 rubles - the money left on the book.
In our shipping company, in the depot, a sailor from the post-war generation, Rem Kudryavsky, worked. In the 60s he served on the floating base "Saratov". Then there was a tucked-in bunk in the cockpit, next to it was a nightstand with a portrait of Nikolai on it. On the plate it was written: "The bed of the foreman of the 1st article Nikolai Vilkov." When the evening verification of personnel took place, the crew of the floating base was built and the right-flank read out the text: "Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Vilkov died on August 18, 1945 for the honor and independence of our Motherland."
In 1945, the ship "XX MYUD" was renamed "Nikolai Vilkov". He worked out his years, by the mid-60s he was decommissioned and dismantled. True, one old captain claims that the Nikolai Vilkov sank at the 308th km of the Bratsk Sea, and before that it was used as a hostel for Kalym woodcutters. In the 70s, when they began to build new ships, the ship "Hero Nikolai Vilkov" sailed in Bratsk. Now it stands in the port, crushed and broken.
Afterword
After the war, Agrippina Yakovlevna left Navolok to live with her daughter in Tbilisi. Olga fought near Moscow in the women's anti-aircraft battery. After demobilization in August 1945, she was sent to Georgia. There she got married and got an apartment. In 1965, they began to build houses for relatives of the Heroes of the Soviet Union in Ryazan. Mother moved there. Olga divorced her husband, took the name Vilkov and returned to her mother in Ryazan. She was often invited to various events, she traveled around the country with stories about her brother.
Arkady came back from the war with two wounds, shell-shocked. He married and moved to Tbilisi. He died in an accident at the enterprise, he left two daughters.
Agrippina Yakovlevna and Olga were in Irkutsk once. In the 60s, they flew to Kamchatka, where sailors invited them to visit the grave of Nicholas. When they were returning back, the plane landed in Irkutsk due to non-flying weather. They all wanted to get to the Angara, but were afraid to miss the flight. The river on which Nikolai swam was never seen by his mother and sister.
The last time Viktor Vasilyevich visited Olga was in 1984. He recently wrote a letter to Ryazan. Maybe one of Nikolai's relatives will respond.
