Nikolai Sysoev Colonel military historian. How Felix Became Iron
The author of these lines, perhaps one of the few researchers, happened to hold in his hands the true personal file of the Hero Soviet Union Stepan Andreevich Neustroev, kept in one of the closed archives under the heading "Secret". Thanks to this, intricate details were revealed that were not included in the official biography of the legendary Pobeda battalion commander. It turned out that he had to take off his shoulder straps three times, work as a mechanic at a factory, serve in the administration of prisoner-of-war camps and in parts of the internal troops for the protection of important defense facilities, on which “the country’s nuclear shield was forged” ...
“ACTED EXCEPTIONALLY BRAVELY…”
“Captain Neustroev, during the capture of the Reichstag, acted exceptionally bravely, decisively, showed military prowess and heroism. His battalion was the first to break into the building, entrenched in it and held it for a day ... Under the leadership of Captain Neustroev, a red flag was hoisted over the Reichstag ... ”- these are the lines from Stepan Neustroev’s original award sheet on his presentation to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, dated May 6 1945. But the battalion commander will receive the Gold Star only a year later - by the Decree of the USSR PVS of May 8, 1946. The reason for the delay is quite ordinary - they figured out for a long time which divisions of which division were the first to break into the Reichstag and hoisted their assault flag over it. After all, at least nine similar red panels with a star, sickle and hammer stenciled with white paint were prepared ...
At the end of the war, the "batyans" - battalion commander was only 23 years old. But he looked brave, despite the fact that he was short, pockmarked and, in general, did not fit the standards of an epic handsome hero. However, he is wiry, strong, and not only in body, but also in spirit. True, he had a very rough, straightforward character, often cutting the truth-womb, regardless of rank and title, which the authorities did not always like, and the truth-seeker himself pretty much spoiled his life.
... The military service of the 19-year-old Stepan, a turner of the Berezovzoloto trust, began in June 1941, when he entered the Cherkasy Military Infantry School, which had just been relocated from Ukraine to Sverdlovsk. The course is accelerated. Six months later, Neustroev - lieutenant and commander of a foot reconnaissance platoon rifle regiment under Moscow. And right off the bat - into hell. This is how the unfired officer remembered his first attack: “I remember one thing from this battle: I ran forward almost in a continuous smoke of explosions ... People fell to the right and left of me ... In that first battle, I understood little ... ".
The first wound was not long in coming - a jagged fragment broke two ribs and got stuck in the liver. When discharged from the hospital, they were dumbfounded: “I’m fit for combat. But it is not suitable for reconnaissance "...
In 1944, Neustroev, dressed as a captain, ended up in the 756th Infantry Regiment of the very 150th Idritskaya Division, whose number will be forever imprinted on the Banner of Victory. As part of this compound, he reached Berlin. By that time, the chest of the dashing battalion commander, as the front-line soldiers used to say, was adorned with a whole iconostasis - six military awards: orders - Alexander Nevsky, Red Star, Patriotic War I and II degrees and two medals - "For Courage" and "For the Capture of Warsaw". As for combat wounds, the fearless officer had five of them, only one less than the awards ...
On April 30, 1945, the soldiers of Captain Neustroev's battalion were the first to break into the Reichstag, and some time later they hoisted a red victory flag on the pediment (note, not on the dome), firmly tying the shaft with straps to one of the sculptural compositions. It was this assault flag that was destined to become the Banner of Victory.
Subsequently, Neustroev continued to serve in the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (GSOVG), which was created on June 9-10, 1945 on the basis of the 1st Ukrainian Front, in the former position of a battalion commander.
THE BANNER OF VICTORY WAS NOT AT THE VICTORY PARADE
The first commander of the GSOVG, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who was appointed to host the Victory Parade on Red Square, came out with the initiative to deliver the assault flag from Berlin to Moscow. An abbreviated inscription was additionally made on the red cloth: “150 pages of the Order of Kutuzov II class. Idritsk. div. 79 S.K. 3 U.A. 1 BF. Accompanying the banner on a specially dedicated aircraft was Stepan Neustroev and four more of his comrades-in-arms. It is symbolic that at the Tushino airfield the Banner of Victory was met by a guard of honor under the command of Captain Valentin Varennikov, also a participant in the storming of Berlin, a future army general and Hero of the Soviet Union.
It was planned to open a grandiose parade on Red Square with the passage of the calculation with the Banner of Victory. But the standard-bearer Neustroev and his assistants, who did not learn how to clearly print a step on the battlefield, did not impress Zhukov at the rehearsal, and he decided not to take the Banner to Red Square. “How to go on the attack, so Neustroev is the first, but I’m not fit for the parade,” the former battalion commander later recalled with sad irony the thought that flashed through his head then.
In August 1946, Neustroev, who had received major epaulettes the day before, was about to enter military academy them. M.V. Frunze. But the medical board "rejected" him for health reasons, the reason - five wounds and slight lameness. Then Stepan Andreevich in his hearts writes a letter of resignation and goes home to the Urals.
And yet, many years later, Stepan Andreevich's dream to walk along Red Square with the Banner of Victory came true: on May 9, 1985, at a military parade dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the defeat Nazi Germany, he solemnly marched next to the military shrine as an assistant with a saber drawn.
In the service in "places not so remote ..."
After a short rest, Neustroev decided to look for work. But the only specialty of a turner is somewhat forgotten. And then the former front-line soldiers, who got a job in the camps for German prisoners of war, scattered across the Urals, call to themselves: they say, there is a length of service, and rations, and salaries for those times are not bad. Neustroev reluctantly (probably did not want to see "these Fritzes" again) agrees and, apparently, considers this a continuation of the fight against fascism.
New, unusual for a military officer, job titles appear in his track record: head of the camp department of the Directorate of POW camp No. 200 (Alapaevsk), then head of the KEO department of POW camp No. 531 (department in Sverdlovsk).
German prisoners of war are building workshops for new factories, building houses for workers, laying roads and communications. Looking at these miserable warriors in worn uniforms, the front-line soldier probably recalled how sweat and blood he and his battalion had to take every line of the enemy, every Nazi fortified area, and how many comrades he lost in the process. Not to mention the Reichstag, which, with the hopelessness of a hunted beast, was desperately defended by selected SS units.
By the end of 1949, in connection with the mass repatriation of prisoners of war to Germany, the camps were abolished one by one. Neustroev is transferred to serve in the system of correctional labor institutions. The following positions are on the track record: the commandant of the Pervouralskaya ITK No. 6, the head of the KVCh (cultural and educational unit) of the Revda ITK No. 7, the combat training instructor of the security headquarters of the UITLK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sverdlovsk Region ...
It was morally much more difficult for a combat officer to work in zones where "their" criminals were sitting than with the Germans. There, behind the "thorn" were enemies, but here - after all, ours ...
1953 Death of Stalin. The ITU system was the first to feel the planned changes in the country - reviews of the cases of convicts and releases under amnesty began. In May of the same year, Neustroev removed his shoulder straps for the second time, he was fired due to redundancy.
ON GUARD OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES
Again, Neustroev is out of work, and retirement is still far away. This time in Sverdlovsk, he gets a job as a simple mechanic at the local machine-building plant of the Ministry of Chemical Industry. There are many front-line soldiers among the partners, he quickly masters, gets the fifth category. In 1957, the workshop fulfilled the plan ahead of schedule. Stepan Andreyevich and several other leaders were rewarded with free vouchers to a sanatorium in Yalta. On the way back I stopped in Moscow, visited old front-line friends. And then fate takes another sharp turn.
One of the fellow soldiers called the former commander of the 79th rifle corps, which included the 150th division, to Semyon Nikiforovich Perevertkin and said that the same battalion commander who took the Reichstag was visiting them. Perevertkin, by that time Colonel General and First Deputy of the “civilian” Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Nikolai Pavlovich Dudorov, immediately sent a car with an order to immediately deliver the hero to him. The meeting ended with the general persuading Neustroev to return to military service, but, however, to the internal troops. “From Moscow,” Stepan Andreevich recalled, “I arrived in Sverdlovsk as a military man.”
Parts of the internal troops, in which Neustroev continued his military service, guarded important defense enterprises, on which, as they used to say then, the “nuclear missile shield” of the Motherland was forged. Previously, these were top-secret cities, as one popular song sang, "which have no name", but only a secret code - Sverdlovsk-44 and Sverdlovsk-45. Such cities were not marked on geographical maps: there is barbed wire around them around the entire perimeter, a thorough checkpoint system, a strict regime for maintaining state secrets for all residents. Now these cities, although they are still protected, are declassified and even have their own Internet sites. The first is Novouralsk, which produced nuclear weapons, the second is Lesnoy, where highly enriched uranium was produced.
The service is extremely responsible. Therefore, in the foreground - the highest vigilance, the strictest secrecy, the most severe access control, which was demanded from the guards by the duty commandant of the guarded facility with the Golden Star of the Hero. Soldiers and officers listened to him like God - unquestioningly: after all, he took the Reichstag! And that's it.
In 1959, Neustroev was promoted - deputy commander of the 31st internal security detachment (in military terms, therefore, deputy regiment commander) in closed Novouralsk and received the rank of lieutenant colonel. And in March 1962, he took off his shoulder straps for the third time - this time he retired due to illness with the right to wear military uniforms.
Stepan Andreevich and his family, on the advice of doctors, moved to live in Krasnodar, sat down to write their own memoirs, in which they intended to tell the whole truth about how they took Berlin, stormed the "lair of the fascist beast" - the Reichstag. And here, in the local book publishing house, his memoirs "Russian Soldier: On the Way to the Reichstag" withstand several reprints. In 1975, on the 30th anniversary of the victory, Neustroev, as a participant in the Great Patriotic War and Hero of the Soviet Union, was awarded military rank"Colonel".
In the 1980s, again on the advice of doctors, Neustroev moved to live in the Crimea - in Sevastopol. And here a terrible tragedy befell him: in 1988, his son Yuri, a rocket major in the Air Defense Forces, together with his wife and six-year-old son, died in a car accident ... An irreparable loss greatly undermines the already poor health of a front-line soldier. But he tries to hold on, continues to work on improving his memoirs, meets with young people, talks about the war, about exploits ...
In the mid-90s, Stepan Andreevich and his wife returned to Krasnodar, in the Ukrainian Crimea, it becomes unbearable for a front-line soldier to live - he often hears insulting things about him behind his back - “occupier”. And in February 1998, on the eve of the celebration of February 23, he decides to go to Sevastopol to visit his daughter's family. But the trip turned out to be fatal - on February 26, the veteran’s heart could not stand it and the legendary “Victory Battalion Commander” died suddenly ... The hero was buried with military honors at the Kalfa city cemetery on the outskirts of Sevastopol ...
Now, after the reunification of Crimea with Russia, soldiers of the internal troops have taken patronage over the grave of the legendary battalion commander of Victory.
“Winners. Collection of articles and memoirs. Tula, Aquarius, 2016, 436 pages, illustrations.
“No matter how the enemy tried ... to take Tula and thereby open his way to the capital, he did not achieve success. The city stood like an impregnable fortress! In the defeat of the German troops near Moscow, Tula and its inhabitants played an outstanding role,” writes Georgy Zhukov in his memoirs. But few people know that the “outstanding role” was played primarily by the state security officers of the NKVD Directorate for the Tula region, the militia workers and soldiers of the 69th brigade of the NKVD troops guarding defense enterprises.
The abbreviation NKVD, ostracized since Khrushchev's time, even today causes extreme hostility among liberals of all stripes. But it was the Chekists and fighters of the internal troops, together with the Tula workers, who stood in the way of the tank wedges.
Under one cover, perhaps for the first time, documents, historical articles and memoirs of veterans are collected, giving a wide range of readers the opportunity to find out who and how saved the city from Nazi occupation in the first, most difficult days of its defense. The Tula security officers formed fighter detachments and battalions, created reconnaissance and sabotage groups, organized partisan movement on the territory of the region. And when the Nazis on October 30, 1941, tried to capture the city with a direct tank strike, they ran into the tough defense of a few units and subunits under the command of Colonel Alexander Melnikov, the military commandant of the city and commander of the 69th brigade of the NKVD troops.
The superior enemy was stopped by the fighters of the Tula workers' regiment under the command of the captain of state security Anatoly Gorshkov, the 156th rifle regiment of the NKVD and the Consolidated police detachment. It was they who fearlessly threw themselves under enemy tanks with grenades and bottles of combustible mixture. They were supported by direct fire only a few crews of the 732nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment.
The defenders of the city survived. On November 2, Krasnaya Zvezda wrote: “At twelfth hour of the night, Comrade Melnikov’s advanced posts heard the rumble of engines ... 48 German tanks came out onto the hillock ... Melnikov gave a signal to the artillerymen ... A large number of burnt tanks, killed soldiers and officers remained on the battlefield. Hitler's attack bogged down. For several more days, Chekist soldiers and militias steadfastly held back the frantic tank throws of Guderian and the SS regiment "Grossdeutschland" until the Red Army units arrived in time.
It is worth noting that the former head of the FSB Directorate for the Tula Region, retired Major General Vladimir Lebedev, who devoted many years to collecting and summarizing little-known materials, facts and memories, convincingly testifying to the unparalleled resilience of Tula people, became the head of the book project "Winners".
It is symbolic that the presentation of the publication took place in the Tula Museum of Weapons. The governor of the region Hero of Russia Alexei Dyumin exhaustively described the collection in the introductory article: "This book is a sign of deep respect and admiration for the feat of fellow countrymen."
#Tula #NKVD #Tula workers' regiment #Alexander Melnikov #Anatoly Gorshkov #Vladimir Lebedev #Alexey Dyumin
It is simply impossible to get an idea of the extraordinary personality of Iron Felix from his once ideologically retouched and carefully combed official biography: “He was born on August 30 (September 11, according to a new style), 1877, in the small estate of Dzerzhinovo, Oshmyany district, Vilna province (now the Minsk region of the Republic of Belarus. - N.S.) in the family of a small estate nobleman.
And all? But questions begin to arise already when trying to find out the origin of his parents. Everything seems to be more or less clear with her mother: Helena Dzerzhinskaya, nee Yanushevskaya, came from a rather noble gentry family. Her father, Ignaty Semenovich Yanushevsky, was a professor at the St. Petersburg Institute of Communications. But in his youth he participated in the secret student society of Vilna University, where the ideas of "educating people capable of enjoying freedom" were promoted. However, radical youthful hobbies did not affect his scientific career.
And with his father, whose full name is Edmund-Rufin Iosifovich Dzerzhinsky, there is a lot of obscure and indefinite. Helena Ignatyevna herself told the children about meeting her future spouse as follows: “Your father was brought to our house by an old Jewish shoemaker who sewed shoes for our family. Edmund met him by chance on the street when, after graduating from St. Petersburg University, he came to Vilna to look for work. There were no vacancies in the gymnasiums, and Edmund did not know what to do next. The professor took pity on the unfortunate teacher and took him to his house to teach his daughter mathematics. Soon the modest but prudent "pan teacher" turned out to be the professor's son-in-law.
The young family settled in an old house on the Ozemblovo farm. It turns out that the “family estate of Dzerzhinovo” initially either did not exist, or it appeared later through the efforts of historians by renaming.
Purebred gentry never considered these places real Poland and called them "cresses" - the outskirts. An amazing mixture of peoples lived here - Lithuanians, Belarusians, Jews. And nationality depended on the political situation.
According to family tradition, Felix was born prematurely. The pregnant mother, bustling around the house, awkwardly stumbled and fell into the hatch of the cellar, lost consciousness. The early contractions started that night. Resolved as a boy, who was named Felix, that is, Happy. Because he survived despite the trauma inflicted on the fetus during the fall of the mother.
At the age of 10, Felix entered the prestigious First Vilna male gymnasium, but he studied badly - he served twice in the first grade. He dropped out of school after the seventh grade with a scandal - he cursed the teachers with "bastards and scoundrels." In the certificate of incomplete education, there were deuces in Russian and Greek, in other subjects - triples, and only according to the Law of God - a solid four. With youthful maximalism, he believed that studies did not give him anything. But later he admitted that he lacked education. “The gymnasium student Dzerzhinsky is dullness, mediocrity, without any bright abilities,” recalled Marshal of Poland Jozef Pilsudski, who studied at the same gymnasium, but several classes older.
In his youth, Felix, just as fanatically as later in the revolution, believed in God, even wanted to become a Catholic monk.
Secrets of brothers and sisters
In biographical books about Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky Soviet period it was emphasized that he had two sisters and four brothers. But it's not. There was no mention of a third sister, Wanda, a year older than Felix. This tragic episode in the biography of the "knight of the revolution", once carefully hidden both in the Dzerzhinsky family and historians, occurred in the summer of 1888: Felix shot his sister with a hunting rifle. Later, a version appeared - allegedly because of unrequited love. But at that time, Wanda was only 12 years old, and Felix was only 11, and there was no question of any forbidden love. Turns out it was an accident...
And not all is well with the brothers. It turns out that Helena Ignatievna's first child was the son Vitold, whom she gave birth to at the age of 19 - in 1867. The baby died less than a year old.
Felix's older sister, Aldona, who supported him in all revolutionary adventures, was born two years after the death of her first child. Her first husband - Gedimin Bulgak - seems to be from a noble family, and their son Anton served as adjutant to Marshal Pilsudski. The second time she married the millionaire Artur Koyalovich, she lived in Vienna, after 1945 she settled in Poland, and wrote several books of memoirs.
The elder brother Stanislav-Karol, being a bachelor, lived in Dzerzhinov, in 1917 he was killed either by runaway soldiers or bandits. Another brother - Casimir, who graduated from Polytechnical Institute in Germany, was married to a German woman. In 1943, he was shot by the Nazis as an agent of the Home Army detachments operating in the Ivenets region.
The younger Ignatius, after graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, like his father, became a teacher, then an official of the Ministry of Education of Poland.
But the youngest of the brothers - Vladislav - graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University even before the revolution, in the early 1920s he became a professor of medicine and vice-rector of Yekaterinoslav (now Ukrainian Dnepropetrovsk) University. He categorically did not accept the ideas of the revolution, he emigrated to Poland, served in the Polish Army, and in 1934 he entered the reserve with the rank of colonel in the corps of medical officers. In 1942, he was shot by the Gestapo near Lodz as the brother of the "chief of the Soviet secret police."
And finally, the third sister, Jadwiga, seemed to have successively three husbands: the first was a wealthy Polish landowner Kushelevsky, the second was a certain Alexei Filippov, a secret officer of the Cheka, and the third unofficial one was a certain Heinrich Gedroits, as if from the Zhmud princes. But she rarely saw her husbands and soon parted with them. Worked in the People's Commissariat of Railways, taught foreign languages She was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Secrets of the Lubyanka
After the VChK headed by Dzerzhinsky was located on Bolshaya Lubyanka Street, in the building of the former Yakor insurance company, the word “Lubyanka” began to evoke a feeling of fear and trembling among Muscovites.
Now here are the economic units of the rear department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the late 1990s, one of the employees showed me a room on the second floor, which was Dzerzhinsky's office, and told me one curious legend. A huge steel safe of the 19th century still stands in the room, and the windows overlook the intersection of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Varsonofevsky Lane. Once the hard work of the “first security officer” was interrupted by a grenade suddenly flying into the window, thrown by an unknown terrorist.
Dzerzhinsky jumped out from behind the table with a bullet, crossed the office in two jumps and immediately disappeared into the safe. The Chekists, who fled to the roar of the explosion, saw their chief, alive and unharmed, in clouds of dust and smoke coming out of a safe shelter.
According to legend, it was after this incident that the wit-comrades-in-arms nicknamed their boss “iron” behind his back. And only then biographers substantiated the spontaneously appeared pseudonym with the iron stamina and inflexibility of the “knight of the revolution”.
By the way, here is what Felix Edmundovich himself said about his famous cavalry overcoat to the floor: “The Moscow Committee introduced me to the commission for the restoration of Bolshevik organizations in the army and the creation of the Red Guard. I often had to speak to the soldiers; Here are the comrades and dressed me appropriately. They dressed up to be recognized as “one of their own”. Then this attire became familiar and was a symbol of revolutionary asceticism and unpretentiousness.
Secrets of renaming
The sudden death of Dzerzhinsky, which followed on July 20, 1926, plunges into deep grief the soldiers and commanders of the Separate Special Purpose Division under the OGPU Collegium, which he personally formed in 1924. At the funeral meeting of the personnel of the formation, a resolution was unanimously adopted - to petition for the assignment of the name of Felix Dzerzhinsky to the OSNAZ division. The ardent desire of the owners is satisfied. A month later - on August 19, 1926 - an order was issued by the OGPU, signed by Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, which says: “In order to perpetuate the memory of the untimely deceased organizer, builder and leader of the glorious army of Chekist fighters ... Comrade Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, assign his name to the division ... ".
With this name, the Dzerzhinskys participate in strengthening Soviet power, fight against counter-revolution, defend Moscow from the Nazis in 1941, march at the Victory Parade in 1945, protect public order, extinguish ethnic conflicts in hot spots of the 80-90s.
August 1991… Moscow is seething with spontaneous rallies and demonstrations. The famous monument to Dzerzhinsky on the square of the same name (now Lubyanskaya Square. - N.S.) - the creation of the wonderful Soviet sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich - is demolished to the whistle and hooting of an exalted crowd. However, the monumental granite busts of the “first security officer” standing near the building of the Main Command of the Internal Troops and on the territory of the subordinate division are not touched.
But in February 1994, in accordance with the “wind of change”, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs issued another order entitled “On Making Changes to the Structure and Names of Formations, Military Units and Military Educational Institutions of Internal Troops ...”. This document announces a new real (there is still a conditional) name of the formation: instead of the usual OMSDON (Separate Motorized Rifle Division for Special Purpose) named after Felix Dzerzhinsky - Separate Operational Division of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Already without the name of Iron Felix ...
“At twelve o'clock in the night, Melnikov's forward posts heard the roar of engines. 48 German tanks entered the hillock. They walked slowly, with brightly burning headlights... Commander Melnikov decided to respond to the psychic attack of the tanks with psychic defense. A contest of nerves began ... Melnikov gave a signal to the artillerymen ... The field was lit up with flashes of cannon volleys. The surviving fascist vehicles hurried to the shelters. A large number of burnt tanks, killed soldiers and officers remained on the battlefield.
Colonel Melnikov, an experienced Chekist commander who began military service on the fronts of the First World War, urgently arrived in Tula and on July 2 took up the post of brigade commander.
The 69th brigade of the NKVD troops included one regiment and three separate battalions, which provided protection for defense enterprises in Tula and Tambov regions and were not intended for open hostilities. In addition, from October 1941 to January 31, 1942, the operational subordination of the brigade included the 115th regiment of the NKVD troops for the protection of railways (Tula, the protection of the Moscow-Kursk railway and government high-frequency communications lines).
Lieutenant Alexander Melnikov. 1916
From the track record of Lieutenant A. K. Melnikov:
“Participated in the Austro-German war from May 1915 to August 1917. He was awarded five orders: St. Anne 4th, 3rd and 2nd class. and St. Stanislaus 3rd and 2nd Art.
The son of a St. Petersburg clerk, a former military over-conscript clerk, Alexander Melnikov, immediately after the declaration of war with the "German adversary", voluntarily signed up for military service. Then, in February 1915, he was sent to the School for Accelerated Training of Ensigns at the Peterhof Military School.
Already in July of the same year, Melnikov, dressed as an ensign, arrived in the 185th Bashkadyklar Infantry Regiment as a junior officer. The oldest regiment fought against the Kaiserites in the area of the Vistula and Varna rivers, then took part in the attack on Lvov. The young officer in the battles was distinguished by courage, courage and fearlessness. Two months later, he was a company commander, and by the end of 1916, a battalion commander and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
In the middle of 1917, Lieutenant Melnikov was sent “for a change of personnel” to a reserve regiment, and at the beginning of 1918 he was demobilized “after the disbandment of the old army” ...
Lieutenant Melnikov (center) in the trenches of the First World War.
"In the combat 18th" Melnikov again had a chance to fight the German invaders. This time under Peter. The former officer rips off his golden shoulder straps, voluntarily joins the Red Army and goes to fight for new ideals and values. Defending on the distant approaches the city of his childhood and youth, now called the "cradle of the revolution", paint Melnikov, as before, bravely fights with the interventionists in the area of Luga and Pskov.
In 1919, Melnikov was the commander of the 2nd battalion of the 471st border regiment, the headquarters was in the Roslavl region.
One day, under cover of night, an enemy detachment unexpectedly burst into the village, in which the headquarters of the regiment and the battalion under the command of Melnikov were located. A desperate, bloody battle ensued...
From award documents of battalion commander Melnikov:
“The commander of the 2nd battalion, Melnikov ... during a night attack of the enemy who broke through to the rear of our troops, being captured by the enemy, did not lose his head, escaped from enemy hands and with the remnants of his battalion (about 40 bayonets) ... hit the flank and drove the enemy back. "
Melnikov's selfless deed was highly appreciated in a revolutionary way and noted at its true worth. By order of the commander of the 15th Army on May 5, 1920, he was awarded the highest distinction of the Soviet Republic - the Order of the Red Banner.
After the end of the civil war, Melnikov continued to serve in the troops of the OGPU-NKVD. His front-line experience was also in demand in peacetime - in the early 20s, socialist construction began, which had to be protected from criminal encroachments of enemies new government, who did not disdain either terrorist attacks or sabotage at the enterprises of the "socialist industry".
After graduating from the Higher Border School of the OGPU troops, he commanded a number of regiments of the NKVD troops for the protection of railways in Ukraine. For distinction in service, he was awarded awards: in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Cheka-OGPU - a personalized browning with the inscription "For the merciless fight against counter-revolution", a gold watch - in honor of the 10th anniversary of the Red Army and one of the most significant awards in those days - the medal "XX years Red Army".
By some miracle, he was bypassed by the "cleansing" of the former tsarist officers and the mass repressions of the command staff of the 30s and 40s. In the autumn of 1938 he was awarded the military rank of colonel.
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War found Colonel Melnikov in Chisinau, where he led the retraining courses for the junior chief of the NKVD troops for the protection of railway structures and took part in border battles. And at the end of June, Melnikov was assigned to Tula.
From the historical form of the 69th brigade of the NKVD troops for the protection of especially important industrial enterprises:
"With the inclusion of the brigade in the active army from October 16, 1941 to January 1, 1942, parts of the brigade carried out the following tasks: direct defense of the years. Tula, Aleksin, Stalinogorsk, where they received Active participation in combat operations with the enemy; security and defense of industrial facilities; guarding the rear of the 10th, 26th, 49th, and 50th armies ... ".
As early as October 3, 1941, Melnikov received the decision of the military council of the 50th Army on the creation of the Tula combat site, which emphasized that "a brigade of the NKVD troops, a work regiment and a police detachment constitute the second echelon of the TBU." But it so happened that it was these formations that actually took the main blow of the enemy, because. only a small part of the troops of the 50th Army managed to retreat to the Tula region.
1941, Tula region.
Let's give the floor to the military chronicle of the alarming autumn of 1941:
“On October 14, an order was issued by the Tula defense headquarters on the creation of defensive areas, one of the points of which was instructed “to the head of the local NKVD troops, Colonel Melnikov, to have barrage posts at the exits from the city ... protecting especially defensive areas.”
On October 23, the Tula City Defense Committee decides: "to entrust the leadership of defense work around the city to Comrade Melnikov." On the same day, another decision followed - "to instruct Melnikov to strengthen street patrols and establish the strictest verification of documents."
Two days later, on October 25, a new decree follows - "to entrust the protection of the revolutionary order in the city and suburbs to Comrade Melnikov, a member of the defense committee of the city commandant ...".
And on the morning of October 30, fierce battles began for Tula. The commandant of the city, Colonel Melnikov, in a few days managed to organize the construction of defensive structures and put up barriers in the most tank-dangerous directions.
One curious document testifies to the difficult and tense situation in which Melnikov had to organize the defense of Tula and direct the actions of subordinate and attached units and subunits - a message via HF from the city defense headquarters to the Main Directorate of Troops
NKVD of the USSR for the protection of especially important industrial enterprises:
“Colonel Melnikov is asking for reinforcements... Over the past 17 days, the enemy has suffered huge losses on the defensive lines, not moving a meter forward. The entire population is mobilized for the defense of the city ...
A shell hit Melnikov's office, but he was not in the office at that time.
The enemy projectile could not catch the military commandant at headquarters, because. he did not leave combat positions for days and personally led the defense of the city. Thanks to the steadfastness and courage of the Chekist soldiers, volunteers of working detachments and fighters of the assigned units of the Red Army, the enemy was stopped and not allowed into the city. The time won by the tough and decisive actions of the courageous defenders made it possible for the troops of the 50th Army to pull up reserves and take up a circular defense around Tula, and then push the Nazis to the west.
For courage and heroism shown by the soldiers and commanders of the 69th brigade of the NKVD troops, more than fifty people were awarded orders and medals. Colonel Melnikov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 12, 1942 for the skillful organization of the heroic defense of the city.
Particular emphasis in his award sheet was placed on the following:
“In the first days of defense, October 29 - November 2, when enemy tanks almost continuously attacked ... and Guderian’s group and SS units - the Great Germany regiment were thrown to capture the city, the city was defended only by Colonel Melnikov’s ... 69th brigade of troops
The NKVD, under the command of Colonel Melnikov, earned the glory of the heroic defender of Tula, under whose walls the defeat of the enemy began.
In April 1943, the 156th regiment of the NKVD troops, as the most distinguished in the battle for the city of Russian gunsmiths, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner with the honorary title "Tula". The combat banner of the unit, as one of the most valuable relics, is now kept in the Tula State Museum of Weapons.
At the end of December 1941, Melnikov, unexpectedly for him, was assigned to the deep rear - to Kuibyshev. It is now known that the entire party and Soviet leadership of the country, headed by Stalin, was to be evacuated from Moscow to the city on the Volga. And then it was a huge state secret. To protect the railway line Moscow-Kuibyshev, the 33rd division of the NKVD troops was urgently formed, the command of which was entrusted to Colonel Melnikov.
Parts of the special formation urgently took under vigilant guard all the important railway facilities from Moscow to Kuibyshev - bridges, depots, water pumps, circles for turning steam locomotives, as well as important objects of the regional center. Guards and military outfits constantly accompanied passenger and cargo trains. The Chekist soldiers were faced with a tough task not only to prevent unauthorized persons from entering protected facilities, but, figuratively speaking, so that even a mouse could not slip into the city unnoticed.
In March 1943, division commander Melnikov was awarded the rank of major general, and the end of the war was marked for him by three more orders - Lenin, the Red Banner (third in a row) and the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, as well as medals - "For the Defense of Moscow" and " For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945.
A participant in three wars, Major General A. K. Melnikov died in 1968 from a serious illness - a consequence of combat wounds and difficult years military service Fatherland...
The longer you defend the rights, the more unpleasant the sediment.
From the historical form of a separate tank battalion OMSDON named after F. Dzerzhinsky of the troops of the NKVD of the USSR: "From 08/01/1937 to 02/19/1938, a detachment formed from the military personnel of the battalion consisting of 78 people under the command of the commander of the 1st division, captain Comrade Khorkov, was on a special operational mission".
In 1996, the author of these lines had the opportunity to meet and talk with retired colonel Boris Georgievich Knyazkov. This short, modest elderly man with a completely unheroic appearance turned out to be a man of amazing fate, a participant in that very "special operational mission", which, by today's standards, could be called nothing more than "military invasion of the territory of a neighboring state". But in those days there were other criteria and assessments of this event, which, under the obligation of non-disclosure of military secrets by its participants, and then out of habit, was kept secret for many decades.
Reference: Predecessor tank formations Chekist division - armored detachment of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee named after Y. Sverdlov - was created on February 24, 1918 at the initiative of the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The purpose is to protect the Soviet leaders from the internal enemy. A kind of government "special forces".
After the death of Y. Sverdlov in 1919, the detachment receives his name and goes to the front, where, as part of the 1st Cavalry of S. Budyonny, he successfully fights against Denikin and the White Poles. Then the "Sverdlovtsy" participate in the defeat of the Antonovshchina, in the liquidation of other anti-Soviet bandit formations. The result of military activity in the years civil war- 99 orders of the Red Banner on the chest of the fighters of the detachment.
At the beginning of 1921, the Sverdlov armored detachment was reassigned to the Cheka. The following year, he joined the OSNAZ detachment, and in 1924, he was reorganized into the armored division of the OSNAZ division under the board of the OGPU of the USSR.
In the 1930s, the armored divisions of the division were sometimes part of motorized rifle regiments, sometimes reduced to an independent armored regiment. And in September 37th, after the departure of the consolidated tank company under the command of Captain I. Khorkov on a secret mission, a separate tank battalion of the OMSDON named after F. Dzerzhinsky was formed on the basis of the remaining armored units.
IN JULY 1937, the commander of the Separate Motorized Rifle Division of Special Purpose named after F. Dzerzhinsky of the NKVD troops, brigade commander P. Toroshchin, received a confidential instruction: with the strictest secrecy, prepare a tank unit for participation in "long exercises in a mountain camp". The place and time of the "maneuvers" were not announced. Even in the Main Directorate of the Border and Internal Troops of the NKVD, literally a few knew about the true task of the Dzerzhinsky tankers.
To staff the unit, it was necessary to select the best commanders and Red Army soldiers, not only excellent students in combat and political training, skillful specialists in their field, but, importantly, "dedicated to the cause of Lenin-Stalin", that is, politically reliable. Some wondered: why is there such a strict selection and extraordinary conspiracy just to participate in some "exercises"? But no one spoke it out loud, since everyone in the Chekist troops was accustomed to obey the order without question and not to ask unnecessary questions.
According to the command, Lieutenant Boris Knyazkov, who at that time was serving in Reutov near Moscow as commander of a tank platoon of the F. Dzerzhinsky division, also met strict criteria for selecting candidates for participation in strange "exercises", according to the command. Curriculum vitae:
Boris Georgievich Knyazkov was born in 1914 in the family of a peasant in the Smolensk province. After the end of the seven-year plan, he went to relatives in Moscow in order to continue his education. In the capital, he became interested in playing football, was invited to one of the teams of the Dynamo sports society and was enrolled as a graduate of the ODON armored division named after F. Dzerzhinsky of the OGPU troops. He showed himself not only in sports, but also in mastering military equipment. In 1931 he was sent to study at one of the schools of the border guard and the OGPU troops, after successful completion which he returned to the division named after F. Dzerzhinsky.
FORMATION of a separate consolidated tank company took place in a short time. Its combat strength, even by today's standards, turned out to be quite impressive: three platoons of five BT-7 light high-speed tanks, plus a tank of the same series for the company commander, as well as a reconnaissance platoon - that's another five T-38 tanks. A total of 21 tanks is a very powerful armored fist capable of inflicting a crushing blow not only on a hypothetical enemy.
In addition, the company included a mobile repair shop, a car radio station with a crew, and a sapper platoon. Also, the tankers were given the required number of trucks - for the transportation of personnel, property, fuels and lubricants and ammunition.
The armored unit was led by the commander of one of the tank divisions, Captain Ilya Khorkov.
(Dzerzhinsky tankers at the exercises. On the right - the commander of a separate tank battalion OMSDON of the NKVD troops, Major I. Khorkov. 1941)
From the newspaper article by N. Chugunov "Three Orders": "Ilya Mikhailovich Khorkov is one of those worker-peasant commanders who were raised and educated by the Bolshevik Party, who, not sparing his strength and life, vigilantly guards the gains of the October Socialist Revolution".
Behind the ideological rhetoric of newspaper correspondence was a man with a solid record of military service and rich combat experience. In the ranks of the Red Army, the future tank commander since 1918. He bravely fought for Soviet power with the whites. Then, after the end of the courses of dyes, fate threw him into Central Asia.
Here the commanding officer Khorkov participated in the liquidation of numerous Basmachi bands. For military exploits he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the Bukhara People's Soviet Republic. In 1933, another high award - the Order of the Red Banner, this time - the USSR. Dashing cavalrymen, changing from a horse to a tank, were the first to master the new formidable military equipment. So the order bearer Khorkov became a tanker.
On September 1, 1937, a tank company plunged into a train at the Reutovo station and departed "in an unknown direction" with increased secrecy. In one of the orders in this regard, it was specifically emphasized that "loading of parts, transportation by railway must be carried out with the strictest secrecy.", and the personnel were warned that it was forbidden to indicate in letters to their homeland "the actions of their units and subdivisions, as well as the names of local settlements ...". A few days later, Central Asian landscapes spread before the eyes of the fighters ...
UNDER THE "WHITE SUN" OF XINJIANG
The RAILWAY echelon ended up in Kyrgyzstan at the Kant station. The tankers were announced that they were at the disposal of Colonel N. Noreiko, who led one of two special groups of troops - Naryn (named from the place of concentration of troops - a city in Kyrgyzstan), the group had already crossed the border with China and was in Xinjiang. Later, the participants in the "exercises" were announced that they were called "provide international assistance to the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang Province".
But in fact, everything was much more complicated. Here the geopolitical interests of three states - the USSR, Japan and China - collided. In 1927, the national revolution in China ended in defeat. Power passed to the Kuomintang, a bourgeois-nationalist party led by Chiang Kai-shek. The Chinese communists, who were helped by the Soviet Union, were forced to retreat to remote areas to the so-called "revolutionary strongholds".
Power in Xinjiang, taking advantage of the weak control of the Kuomintang government, in 1933 seized Shen-Shi-Tsai, who declared himself the duban (ruler) of a vast territory. Not wanting to submit to the official authorities, he focused on the "northern neighbor" and even hatched the idea of joining the CPSU (b). However, back in 1933, through the intelligence agencies, the Soviet government was informed that "Shen-Shi-Tsai's communism and his sincerity are doubtful, most likely a diplomatic move". But the leadership of the USSR, fearing the consolidation of Kuomintang power in this region or a repetition of the Manchu scenario - the creation of a puppet pro-Japanese state like Manchukuo, made a bet on the "duban" and continued to provide him with military assistance.
However, the majority of the Muslim population - Uighurs and Dungans - systematically rebelled against the power of Shen Shi Tsai. For example, in one of the intelligence reports of the headquarters of the Central Asian Military District, it was emphasized that "The situation in Xinjiang is characterized by hostile relations between two military groups: the Urumqi government and the 36th Dungan division...". This connection, as emphasized in the paper, "during his stay in the Khotan district ... thoroughly robbed the district with extortions and taxes", which caused discontent among the local population, the majority of whom are Uyghurs, and contributed to the strengthening of the Uyghur national movement, among whose leaders the "the idea of creating an independent Uighuristan".
As for the army of the official Urumqi (Urumqi - the capital of Xinjiang) government, it, according to Soviet military intelligence, was in a deplorable state: the provision was beggarly, the barracks were not equipped, there were no bedding, the soldiers were covered in lice, no organized combat training was carried out.
In 1937, another uprising broke out against the duban, which the demoralized army was unable to suppress. And Shen-Shi-Tsai once again turned to the Soviet government for help. Of course, there was no response...
"ARMORED IMPACT..."
BEFORE setting out on a campaign through the Pamirs, the tankmen were dressed in "special order outfit" which was more like the clothes of the local population - the same cut of robes and hats of a characteristic shape. The duban army and the rebel formations were also dressed in the same way. It was strictly forbidden to take equipment with Soviet symbols on a hike.
The company commander, Captain Khorkov, received the task of marching along the route Kant - Rybachye - Naryn. Further - along the high-mountainous Turugart pass, cross the border with China and enter the adjacent territory - to the province of Xinjiang.
Reference: The problem of Xinjiang, the northwestern province of China, bordering Russia (then the USSR), arose in the 70s of the nineteenth century, when local Muslims - Uyghurs and Dungans - under the leadership of Yakub-bek actually overthrew Chinese power over a vast territory and proclaimed the formation of own state. In this situation, the Qing dynasty was forced to turn to Russia with a request for help. Alexander II ordered to bring units of the Russian army and Cossack formations into Xinjiang, which helped the Chinese authorities suppress the Uyghur-Dungan uprising.
The Soviet government has already faced another "headache" of Xinjiang. After the end of the Civil War, several thousand White Guards of General A. Dutov and the Asian Division of the notorious Baron R. Ungern took refuge in this area. Basmachi and peasants of the Central Asian Soviet republics, who fled from hunger and collectivization, also found shelter here.
At the end of 1933, as a result of the conflict between Shen Shih Tsai and the central Kuomintang government of China, two Chinese divisions entered Xinjiang, most the personnel of which were Dungans, the position of the duban became critical. The Russian White Guard regiment, which was in the service of Shen-Shi-Tsai, with difficulty held the capital of the province - Urumqi. Duban, oriented towards its northern neighbor, asked the USSR military aid. At the beginning of 1934, a group of troops of the Red Army and the OGPU crossed the Soviet-Chinese border and participated in the suppression of the Dungan uprising. After that, Soviet military advisers were appointed here, one of whom is a graduate of the eastern faculty of the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze P.S. Rybalko, future marshal of the armored forces and twice Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the unrest of the Uighurs and Dungans, based on dissatisfaction with the official authorities and internecine contradictions, continued.
Pomnachtab of a separate tank battalion OMSDON of the NKVD troops senior
lieutenant B. Knyazkov with a combat award "For Xinjiang". 1940
This was skillfully used by the Japanese militarists, who sent their secret emissaries to Xinjiang. The province could well follow the path of Manchuria, where the puppet state of Manchukuo was created by the Japanese. Such a turn did not suit the USSR.
TRANSITION through the mountain ranges in tanks along undeveloped roads, along which it was possible to pass only on a cart, was extremely dangerous. Nevertheless, the Pamir Mountains were overcome successfully, without any special incidents.
The success was primarily due to the excellent training of combat vehicle drivers. They were able to lead tanks along the mountain paths, whose steel tracks on granite stones glided like skates on ice. One careless move and a heavy steel machine can easily fall into the abyss. A considerable merit in the successful overcoming of the high mountain pass belonged to the command staff. The diligence, clear and skillful actions of the commanders, who were just lieutenants (but what!), contributed to the completion of this, without exaggeration, heavenly tank throw.
For example, senior lieutenant M. Kushchanov was the deputy company commander, and young lieutenants were the platoon commanders: the first - B. Knyazkov, the second - N. Kolyako, the third - A. Kovalevsky. Technicians also wore two or three head over heels in buttonholes. But despite the low ranks, tank commanders were at their best in the literal and figurative sense of the word.
"... UNDER THE PRESSURE OF STEEL AND FIRE"
THESE WORDS of the once popular song about "three tankmen" and "a flock of enemies flying to the ground" seem to have been written off from the Dzerzhinsky combat operations journal. The Muslim rebels fled in fear "under the pressure of steel and fire" of hitherto unseen invulnerable "iron chariots".
Having descended from the mountains, the tanks immediately turned on fighting. They supported Colonel Noreiko's cavalry group. Fortunately, the tactical and technical data of these particular combat vehicles made it possible to do this. Tank BT-7 - "fast tank" - wheeled and caterpillar, with a speed of movement on tracks over 60 kilometers per hour, on wheels - up to 90. Where conditions allowed - there was solid soil, tracks were removed and combat vehicles rushed forward from great speed on wheel-discs, terrifying the rebels and the local population. Armament was almost never used, the "iron chariot" was already demoralizing.
The rebels did not enter into open battle. Tried to resist in fortified settlements which were called fortresses. But for tanks they were not an obstacle. Steel fighting vehicles easily punched through wooden gates and demolished adobe walls. The enemy, armed with antediluvian rifles, could not put up any significant resistance. And most of them didn't even try. Seeing how tanks easily burst into their fortresses, they threw down their weapons and, covering their heads with their hands, with cries of "Shaitan-arba!" fell to the ground. All that was left was to capture them.
Soon, uninterrupted marches and all-penetrating desert dust began to affect the technical condition of the machines. They decided to move forward on foreign territory by throws - from line to line. While one part of the tanks is being repaired, the other is fighting. Then the tanks brought into combat condition are pulled up, and the tracks of those that are out of order are changed, the motors are cleaned of dust and dirt. Then everything repeats. It was especially hard in the Takla Makan desert, where there were quicksands. Knyazkov recalled one episode. Somehow his car was overtaken by the car of the company commander. The lieutenant stopped his tank to clarify combat mission. The tracks of the heavy machine began to slowly sink into the desert sandy soil. Knyazkov did not attach any importance to this.
It took several minutes to complete the task. After that, the tank roared, but remained in place, and the tracks dug into the sand. They tried to dig it out with shovels, but the tank sank deeper and deeper. We decided to dig a gentle slope, lay logs on it, prudently fixed to the armor at the beginning of the campaign, and climbed up them. They left the dangerous area at full speed so as not to get bogged down in the sand again.
The finale of the operational-combat activity of the cavalry group and the tank company that was part of it was the capture of a large enemy grouping near the border with India and the capture of a large caravan with looted property (up to 25 thousand camels and donkeys).
Among the trophies there was a huge amount of valuables - precious stones, gold and silver items. All this was transported to the territory of the USSR on planes specially flown for this purpose. The landing sites for them were hastily prepared by the Dzerzhinsk people - they rolled the ground with tank tracks and at the same time ensured safety when loading and sending aircraft ...
"FOR EXAMPLE PERFORMANCE OF SPECIAL TASKS..."
RETURN to the motherland was no less difficult. The work of tanks in the desert accelerated the wear of mechanisms and parts. Cylinders, pistons and rings worked hard, as a result of which the power of the engines dropped sharply. Up to 15 percent of the tracks in the caterpillar belts of the movers failed, and the connecting fingers took the form of crankshafts.
If tank engines were able to be brought into working condition with the help of repairmen, then movement on tracks where it could not be done on wheels was carried out as follows: caterpillar tracks were made up, which were placed on some of the vehicles. They made a march for several tens of kilometers. Then the tapes were removed from them, loaded onto cars and returned to the remaining tanks.
And so, step by step, we reached the pass. It was decided to go down the mountain road on wheels, walking it was very risky. True, the sapper units, while the tankers were in Xinjiang, managed to expand and bring the mountain road into a more or less divine form. The pass was passed without incident. We plunged at the Kant station into the railway train and arrived at the point of permanent deployment - in Moscow. A few months later, on October 19, 1938, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued to reward the participants of the legendary operation. Captain I. Khorkov received the Order of the Red Star, and Lieutenant B. Knyazkov - the medal "For Military Merit". The decree did not contain a word about the true motives of the award. His text was neutral: "For the exemplary performance of special government assignments to strengthen the defense power of the Soviet Union and for outstanding successes and achievements in combat, political and technical training of formations and units of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and the troops of the NKVD". The impression was created that large-scale exercises were really taking place, and not a military raid on the territory of a neighboring state.
Shortly after the arrival of the tank crews in Moscow, in September 1938, they arrested the division commander, brigade commander P. Toroshchin, as an "enemy of the people". He was accused of participating "in a conspiratorial organization that existed among the troops of the NKVD" and a year and a half later, by the verdict of the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, he was shot.
Then, in September of the 38th, Shen-Shi-Tsai paid a visit to Moscow, where he nevertheless received the coveted party card. He remained in power in Xinjiang until 1943. And in 1948, after the establishment of communist power throughout China, he died under mysterious circumstances. As for the problems of separatism in Xinjiang, the idea of creating an independent Muslim state still exists here...
The fate of the participants of the "tank landing" through the Pamirs was favorable. They weren't affected Stalinist repressions, swept through the command and command staff of the NKVD troops in 1938 - 1940. Many of them fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War and were awarded orders and medals. As for retired colonel B. Knyazkov, he outlived everyone actors Xinjiang epic and passed away only three years ago, leaving short memories, just a few pages of typewritten text, about the secret campaign of Soviet tankers to the borders of India ...
Nikolay SYSOEV
