All three Germans were from Belgrade. They got over it... Why do Russian schoolchildren mourn the "innocently dead" soldiers of the Wehrmacht. Was there a boy

On February 8, 1943, Belgorod was liberated, having been under the Germans since October 24, 1941, however, on March 18, 1943, the Nazis again occupied it. If during the first capture - the city was left without a fight by our troops, now this happened after the swift attack of the combat group Joachim Peiper (LAH).

They say that this attack even became a classic example and was included in textbooks on the tactics of offensive operations of motorized infantry (see details and). Piper is a separate big topic. And let military specialists adopt his experience in capturing cities, but we will see what Belgorod was at that time, which remained captured in German photographs:

1. April 22, 1943. German artillery marching through Belgorod to the front.
Chicherina street ("Hundred meters"). On the left - the former theological seminary (approximately where new residential buildings of the "Slavic" complex are being built now). The equipment is moving west, to the intersection with Novomoskovsk (B. Khmelnitsky):

2. April, 1943. Relocation of the 2nd division Das Reich to Peresechnoye near Kharkov (where the Shtug is going, we have not established):

3. March, 1943. South side of Chicherin Street ("Hundred Meters"). View from the intersection with Novomoskovskaya (Bogdanka). A woman is pushing a cart along Bogdanka towards Khargora:

4. March, 1943. In the same place, but on the north side of Chicherin Street ("Hundred Meters"). On the right - the buildings of the former theological seminary, on the edge on the left - a piece of the Znamenskaya Church of the Monastery fell into the frame:

5. March, 1943. South side of the intersection of Chicherin and Novomoskovskaya. The building on the left, near which the Germans are swarming, was on the site of the current Slavyansky shopping center, in front of it, already through Bogdanka - the destroyed two-story building of the ex-hotel of the merchant Yakovleva (the hotel was the most respectable in pre-revolutionary times):

6. March, 1943. And this is Bogdanka. The place of the current stop "Rodina" in the direction of Khargora. On the right - the former hotel of Yakovleva, in the distance, at the site of the current entrance to BelSU, you can see the building of the mill:

7. July 1943. The western side of Novomoskovsk street (B. Khmelnitsky) opposite the brewery, a mill is visible in the distance on the left bank of Vezelka:

8. July 1943. Tiger at the brewery. Away - Suprunovka and Khargora. (A well-known image to many):

9. July 1943. Bogdanka from Suprunovka. Bridge over Vezelka (it was located a little to the east of the current one), a brewery:

10. July 1943. Smolensk Cathedral from the air (the picture has already been published by me, but now it is better):

11. June 11, 1943. The disguised bridge over Vezelka (the picture was taken from the right-south bank of the river):

12. June 11, 1943. The picture was taken from the bridge over Vezelka in the direction of the left bank. The four-story building of the mill on the site of BelSU:

14. June 11, 1943. The brewery from the yard (the building on the right is easily recognizable, even though now it is mutilated by sawn window openings of various sizes):

16. The road between Belgorod and Kharkov in March 1943. A wrecked tank from the column "Moscow Collective Farmer":

N.B. Photos of Belgorod on the site NAC.gov.pl were found thanks to Sergey Petrov.
You can familiarize yourself with the "photo report" of the Germans on the first occupation of Belgorod in 1941-42

Simonov Konstantin Mikhailovich

Visitor's book

The high hill covered with coniferous forest, on which the Unknown Soldier is buried, is visible from almost every street in Belgrade. If you have binoculars, then, despite the distance of fifteen kilometers, at the very top of the hill you will notice some kind of square elevation. This is the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

If you drive east from Belgrade along the Požarevac road and then turn left from it, then you will soon reach the foot of the hill along a narrow asphalt road and, going around the hill in smooth turns, you will begin to climb to the top between two continuous rows of centuries-old pines, the foot of which is entangled bushes of wolfberries and ferns.

The road will take you to a smooth paved area. You won't go any further. Directly in front of you will rise endlessly up a wide staircase, built of rough-hewn gray granite. You will walk along it for a long time past gray parapets with bronze torches until you finally reach the very top.

You will see a large granite square, bordered by a powerful parapet, and in the middle of the square, finally, the grave itself - also heavy, square, lined with gray marble. Its roof on both sides, instead of columns, is supported on the shoulders by eight bent figures of weeping women, sculpted from huge pieces of the same gray marble.

Inside, you will be struck by the strict simplicity of the grave. Level with the stone floor, worn by countless feet, is a large copper plate.

Carved on the board are just a few words, the simplest one imaginable:

UNKNOWN SOLDIER IS BURIED HERE

And on the marble walls on the left and right you will see faded wreaths with faded ribbons, laid here at different times, sincerely and insincerely, by the ambassadors of forty states.

That's all. And now go outside and from the threshold of the grave look in all four directions of the world. Perhaps once again in your life (and this happens many times in your life) it will seem that you have never seen anything more beautiful and majestic.

To the east you will see endless forests and copses with narrow forest roads winding between them.

In the south, you will see the soft yellow-green outlines of the autumn hills of Serbia, the green spots of pastures, the yellow stripes of stubble, the red squares of rural tiled roofs and the countless black dots of herds trudging through the hills.

To the west you will see Belgrade, bombarded, battle crippled, and yet beautiful Belgrade, gleaming white amid the fading greenery of fading gardens and parks.

In the north, you will be struck by the mighty gray ribbon of the stormy autumn Danube, and beyond it the fat pastures and black fields of Vojvodin and Banat.

And only when you take a look at all four corners of the world from here, you will understand why the Unknown Soldier is buried here.

He is buried here because the whole beautiful Serbian land is visible from here with a simple eye, everything that he loved and for which he died.

This is how the tomb of the Unknown Soldier looks like, which I am talking about because it will be the setting for my story.

True, on that day, which will be discussed, both fighting parties were least of all interested in the historical past of this hill.

For the three German gunners left here by forward observers, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was only the best observation point on the ground, from which, however, they had already twice unsuccessfully requested permission to leave by radio, because the Russians and Yugoslavs began to approach the hill closer and closer.

All three Germans were from the Belgrade garrison and knew perfectly well that this was the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and that in case of artillery shelling, the grave had thick and strong walls. This was, in their opinion, good, and everything else did not interest them at all. So it was with the Germans.

The Russians also considered this hill with a house on top as an excellent observation post, but the enemy's observation post and, therefore, subject to fire.

What is this residential building? Some kind of wonderful thing, I’ve never seen anything like it, said the battery commander, Captain Nikolaenko, carefully examining the grave of the Unknown Soldier through binoculars for the fifth time. “And the Germans are sitting there, that’s for sure. Well, how are the data prepared for firing?

Yes sir! - Reported the platoon commander, standing next to the captain, a young lieutenant Prudnikov.

The Russian Soviet writer and poet K. M. Simonov in his text raises the problem of preserving historical monuments.

To draw readers' attention to this problem, the author tells about the rescue of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Great Patriotic War. The battery of the protagonist Captain Nikolaenko was preparing to shell an enemy observation post.

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Nearby was the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The captain had never seen such a structure before and did not know about its great significance, so he gives the order to shell the area. However, the captain's ward, Lieutenant Prudnikov, who before the war was a student of the Faculty of History, recognized the grave and tried to stop its destruction. Prudnikov explained to Nikolaenko that the grave is a “national monument”, a symbol of all those who died for the Motherland. An unidentified Yugoslav soldier is buried in it, who also fought against the Germans during the First World War. The captain, for whom "everything was clear," gave the order to set aside the fire. So the tomb of the Unknown Soldier was saved.

K. M. Simonov believes that it is necessary to preserve historical monuments so that descendants always remember the history of their Motherland and the price that victory in the war cost us.

As proof of this position, I will give an example from foreign literature. In Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, the reader paints a terrible picture of a society in which all books are burned. Books are also historical monuments, as they store the experience and knowledge accumulated by previous generations. By burning them, humanity breaks the connection with its ancestors. Such ignorance leads to the degradation of society. Ray Bradbury proves this with his dystopia.

As a second argument, I will cite historical facts. During the Great Patriotic War, the German invaders occupied Gatchina, the hometown of many people. The Germans burned and plundered the main historical monument - the Gatchina Palace. It was in a terrible state, but most of it still survived. After the end of the war, historians, together with art restorers, worked for many years to restore the Gatchina Palace. Now it hosts various tours and exhibitions. I am proud that in our country such an important monument for Gatchina has been restored, because thanks to this we managed to save the most valuable thing - our history.

Thus, K. M. Simonov in his text urges us to preserve historical monuments, because there is nothing more valuable in the world than the memory of our ancestors who sacrificed their lives for a brighter future.

Updated: 2018-03-31

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Yesterday our troops occupied the cities of Novocherkassk, Likhaya, Zverevo, Novoshakhtinsk, Zolochev and a number of large settlements. Valiant soldiers of the Red Army! Even stronger blows to the enemy. Liberate your native land from the Nazi invaders!

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH

It was the fifth of November. The first Gulkevichi-Berlin train stood on the rails, ready to depart. True, for a direct direct train, it had a somewhat strange appearance: two dozen sealed freight cars, a dozen tanks and half a dozen old, broken cars - that's all. But today's Germans have long ceased to care about any credibility of their lies. They ordered the quarters and gendarmes to say that there would be a direct train Gulkevichi-Berlin. All the quarters and gendarmes, with the stupidity of hirelings, repeated this to each and every one for a whole month.

You will work there, you will be fine there,” they asserted, not even trying to give their words special expressiveness, because their fists, which they crackled on the table at this phrase, seemed to them the only and best form of persuasion. When leaving, they put an oblong sheet of paper on the table, where a black German eagle was depicted at the top, and at the bottom there was a signature - the commander-in-chief of the German troops in the Caucasus.

The announcement is short and in its own way convincing with that cynical persuasiveness that is undoubtedly in the words of the murderer, who says to his victim: give me everything you have, or I will kill you. You live in a country that we have devastated, but we are ready to take you as a slave. You will mop the floors in our houses and carry out our chamber pots. You can't get away from us, we have already forced thousands of people like you to do this.

The cursed paper lay on the table in the hut, where the gendarme had put it. And as if she was infected with leprosy, no one touched her with their hands. But in the evening, by the light of an oily night lamp, it was re-read for the tenth and twentieth time with eyes swollen with tears, hopelessly looking for loopholes from this German trap, still quietly lying on the table, but already ready to snap shut with a crunch. At night, when everyone was finally asleep, the hut was suddenly lit up. A hand-held searchlight, clinging to the glass from the outside, ransacked the walls, climbed onto the stove, onto the bed, like a strange, slippery hand, crawled over the faces of the sleeping people. Then there was a knock. The commandant and the gendarme entered and sat down at the table. Silently, arms folded, shivering from the cold of the night, the Russian people stood before them, the same ones.

The commander-in-chief of the German forces in the Caucasus ordered to recruit "voluntarily", but in the pocket of the commandant, like hundreds of other commandants, there was an apportionment with exact numbers and a recruitment deadline. The commandant had a duty, unusual for his profession as a hangman, to “persuade”.

He said that there were no more Russian troops, that. He said that until January 10 there would still be a general mobilization of Russians from 14 to 45 years old, and if they did not go voluntarily now, then he would force them to go. Yes, they will, and don't they think that it will be much worse? He said that soon here, among these ruins, they would have nothing to eat and nothing to wear. And if they go to Germany and work faithfully and diligently, then part of what they produce will end up here, in their impoverished country. He said, looking into the face of the silent girl, that the future of her parents depended on her and her brother. If they go to Germany, then the old people will live better here, he, the commandant, will take care of this. But if they don't go... The commandant would stop and, after a long, threatening pause, would get up.

The yellow spot of the spotlight, jumping out of the gate, slowly crawled further along the street. And in the hut they were still sitting silently and motionless, as if spellbound. Only then did the tired, tortured people, muzzled by the Germans, begin to cry and whisper. And the next evening it all happened again.

I was told all this in the Kuban stanitsa Gulkevichi, when in the evening I walked along the long stanitsa street and, without choosing, went into one or another hut. Two echelons nevertheless left Gulkevichi for Germany: one on the fifth of November, the other on the fifth of January, already at the last minute, during the days of our offensive in the North Caucasus. The Germans failed to convince anyone, but they managed to force many. I went from house to house, and two weeks later in the third the bed was empty, and mothers who had lost their children with dry eyes that had already cried out all the tears for a long time told me the story of taking their children into slavery.

When persuasion did not help, the children were called to the commandant's office and beaten. When this helped her, they were threatened with the execution of their parents. Some surrendered, the rest, still unwilling to go to Germany voluntarily, were mobilized to work for the railroad. They loaded shells, turned sleepers, dragged bricks. And when the day came, scheduled for sending the echelon, they were told that they were being transferred to another job - to Germany. No, they are not raped, they are not forced to leave, they are simply transferred to another job.

Terrible weeping stood that day in the village. The children did not dare to run, fearing that their parents would be killed. Parents were silent, afraid that their children would be killed. I am sitting in an orphaned Kazakov family. The only daughter left in the family, still a girl, tells me about this day in a trembling voice. Her foster sister Marusya left back in November, she did not want to go, but she was taken to the railroad to carry sleepers. She was a weak girl by nature, recently completely weakened from hunger, and the Germans forced her to carry sleepers. When she fell down exhausted, they beat her; when she got up and fell again, she was beaten again. Afraid of dying from the beatings, she could not stand it and in November "voluntarily" agreed to leave.

In January it was the turn of brother Yegor. They didn't even let him go home. He only managed to convey through a neighbor who was passing by that in the morning he was being taken to Germany, he and two of his comrades - Volodya Pugachev and Vanya Kupchenko. At night, by order of the commandant, several sleighs with hay were brought from the village to the train and covered the floor with it in four broken freight cars without ovens. In the morning, hiding a few homemade donuts baked from the last flour under a scarf, the younger sister came to see off her brother. A locomotive was attached to the train. She walked along the train, looking for her brother. Three German soldiers stood by each wagon with fixed bayonets. Finally, she saw her brother. They hugged, he cried and whispered to her through tears that he would run away before Rostov. But let him not be expected at home, he will not return, so as not to destroy his mother.

Shnel, shnel, - grumblingly hurried the German.

My brother climbed into the carriage, the train started moving, and suddenly, from somewhere inside the train, a mournful girlish voice tearing the soul sang a song that they began to sing in the village only recently, under the Germans, when the girls began to be driven away to a foreign land:

Hello mother,
Receive greetings from your daughter.
Your daughter is writing to you from afar.
I live, but my life is broken,
Lonely, miserable.

They took me to a foreign country
With a lonely poor head
And they broke my young life,
Separated, mother, from you.

The train was leaving. The platform of the last car with two German soldiers standing on it became smaller and smaller until it completely disappeared around the bend.

Trains of slaves... But a terrible retribution is already underway for the children of Russia, stolen by evil foreigners. The Red Army is marching to the West. It will save our people from slavery and extinction, will return their freedom and homeland to them. // . NORTH CAUCASUS FRONT.
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* ("Red Star", USSR)**
I. Ehrenburg: * ("Red Star", USSR)**

In Belgorod

From the air, the pictures of the defeat of the German troops are presented even more clearly than usual. We fly to Belgorod and from above we see hundreds of motor vehicles, guns and tanks abandoned by the Germans on the roads to the city. On field airfields near populated areas, the skeletons of burnt German aircraft are piled up. We are at low level and can clearly see the corpses of Germans in green overcoats and helmets lying on the snow.

We circle over the city. We see the burnt down station building, the blown up depot. We fly over the chalk developments. Once upon a time, work was in full swing here, but now traces of desolation are visible even from the air. Choose a place where you can sit. Residents, seeing red stars on their wings, wave their hands from the ground ... A crowd of people runs towards us. The first question is: “Did they bring any newspapers?”. Several numbers immediately went hand in hand. People read them aloud, in groups, crying with joy and happiness.

The ruins of buildings set on fire by the Germans during their retreat smoke in the city. Several corpses of civilians shot dead by the Germans lie near the sidewalk. Why were they killed? No one knows. The retreating Nazis took out their anger on innocent people.

Our troops are moving through the city, continuing the offensive. Tanks and artillery are coming. In white coats with machine guns on their chests are infantrymen.

A group of residents removes German signs from their houses. Here is one of the German barracks. The other day, when several dozen officers were playing cards there, a bomb dropped from our night bomber hit the barracks.

Residents vying with each other talk about their torment under the German yoke. At every step we see terrible facts confirming these stories. On the market square there is a permanently functioning, well-equipped, black-painted gallows. On it, almost daily, several people from Belgorod were hanged in public.

From the city and the villages adjacent to it, the Germans every day drove people to Germany for hard labor. Subpoenas from the labor bureau were sent out to the victims, ordering them to report to the collection point. Those who did not appear were shot.

A batch of those doomed to hard labor was stuffed into freight cars, the doors were tightly boarded up on the outside, and the trains left to the west. The people locked in the cars shouted and knocked on the doors, but the escorts who accompanied the train quickly "put things in order." Sometimes letters from Germany came from those who had left. Here is one of them. It was written in a "Russian camp" near Leipzig and addressed to Vera Kononenko, who lives in Belgorod. This letter passed through the hands of the German censors, but breathes horror and grief:

“I live in the Tauche camp on the outskirts of Leipzig. We are left with a few people of Greyvoron, and the girls from our street and Katya A. are not between us ... ".

The city published a newspaper in Russian "Voskhod". The false leaf until the very last days reported on ... the "victories" of the German army. The population sometimes found out about the real state of affairs from leaflets dropped by our planes, while the majority lived in complete ignorance. But the Soviet people were waiting for their own and firmly believed that the end of the Nazi bossing would soon come. When the Germans, retreating in panic, fled through the streets of the city, many residents took up arms and fired at soldiers and officers from the windows of houses, from the roofs.

On the very first day after the liberation of Belgorod, life began to improve in the city. People took to the streets and reached out to the head of the garrison to find out what they needed to do now. The cannonade was getting quieter and quieter. The front moved to the west. // Captain O. Kiselev.
________________________________________ ____
** ("Red Star", USSR)**
A. Tolstoy: ** ("Red Star", USSR)**

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In Izyum
(From the special correspondent of the Red Star)

German propaganda is doing its best to hide the situation on the fronts not only from the population of Germany, but also from its soldiers and officers in the rear. Izyum residents say that until the last days the enemy garrison of the city did not know anything about the crushing blows inflicted by the Soviet troops on the German army. On the eve of the fighting in the city, several policemen came running from the village of Krasny Oskol, located not far from Izyum, and in a panic said to the Izyum burgomaster:

In Krasny Oskol, the Red Army killed the German garrison and the police, we barely escaped.

The burgomaster and German officers reassured the policemen:

It can't be. There should not be any Red Army soldiers, everything is in order. Go back.

But the police, who knew that Soviet troops were bringing order to Krasny Oskol, said that they would not go back under any circumstances. And after a few hours, the peals of gun shots became louder and louder, and by evening a battle began in the city. The Germans, taken by surprise, were driven out of Izyum by a sudden blow from our units.

The city was destroyed by the Germans. There are now two lines of ruins on the main street where the multi-storey buildings stood. The Germans destroyed the railway station, the locomotive factory, all public buildings, educational institutions, a new cinema, and many residential buildings. Everything that was created by the Soviet government, they wanted to destroy in order to return the Soviet city to the darkness of the Middle Ages, to turn a flourishing city into a provincial fortress village.

The Germans took away from the population of the surrounding villages and from the city dwellers who had their own estates, bread and cattle. In many houses we saw the following picture: women and children were sitting on the floor and grinding cake in hand mills. Cakes were baked from it. No one has seen meat for six months. People have forgotten the taste of sugar. There was no electricity, and tiny oil lamps flickered in the houses.

All cultural institutions of the city were closed. In all of Izyum, only one school survived, but even there the Germans tried to injure the soul of the Soviet people. Half of the classes were devoted to learning the language of the hated enslavers. In the textbooks of the Russian language and arithmetic, the Germans forced to cross out in ink all the words about the Red Army, about collective farms, about Soviet power. Fascist scoundrels forced the word "not" to be deleted from the textbook for the first grade from the phrase "We are not slaves". The students were forced to recite loudly: "We are slaves." But the children did not submit to the enemy, and through black ink they read native and close words about Lenin and Stalin, about free Soviet life and about the beloved Red Army, the arrival of which the Izyum people were waiting for, like the sunrise.

The Germans sent trains with women and men, girls and boys to Germany for hard labor. Before leaving, they managed to capture only those who did not have time to hide - about 60 men and women. They brought them to the outskirts of Izyum, to the Gnidovka farm, and in furious rage for their defeat they shot 60 innocent victims, and burned the farm.

In Izyum, normal life is now being established. The partisans who helped the Red Army to drive the Germans out of the villages and cities were placed at the head of the city organizations. The partisan Zhurba was appointed secretary of the city council, whom the Germans in their dirty newspaper twice declared shot. Within a few days, it was possible to restore the bakery, sausage factory, butter factory, mill, and now these enterprises are operating at full speed, supplying the population and the Red Army. Hundreds of residents crowd into the local commandant's office and city council: they are sent to work in newly restored institutions. About 800 men gathered at the military registration and enlistment office; they go to the front to destroy the accursed nemchura in the ranks of the Red Army. // Major A. Petrov.

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Goebbels Surrounded by Facts

Fascist propaganda tried to hide from the German people the defeat of the German army at Stalingrad, in the Caucasus, in the region of Voronezh. At first she hushed up the facts that were fatal for Hitler and his gang, then she began to distort the facts. But there are too many facts, they appear daily in the reports of the Sovinformburo, bypassing the whole world. The facts seep through the fascist censorship and become known to the German population. Facts surround Goebbels and his pack from all sides. They cut off his escape route. They expose all his former lies.

Goebbels rushes about among these facts, trying to break through them. From the previous positions of bragging, outright lies about the “straightening of the front”, about the “elastic defense”, he was shot down. He needs to establish himself in a new position. He tries to play frankly. He pretends to acknowledge everything. He is even ready to admit that he lied. He says in his last article in the newspaper Das Reich: "Now the truth has been revealed to us in all its nakedness."

He thinks that this confession of the old lie will open for him a gap in the inexorable facts. He portrays a penitent sinner and exposes himself: "On the eastern front, we experienced a setback." Why "survived" - in the past tense? Has the Red Army stopped smashing the Germans? Saying nothing about this, Goebbels continues: “We ourselves are partly to blame for this, and we do not want to dispute this or shift the blame on anyone. We ourselves underestimated the strength of the enemy a little ... The enemy has some superiority in people and materials ... We are not ashamed to admit that our initial installations were insufficient ... ".

An old, tried-and-tested method of falling asleep swindlers! It is pointless to deny the facts that have come up tightly from all sides. One cannot shout that the Red Army has been destroyed when the Red Army has destroyed and is destroying one German army after another. The crook now "recognizes" everything. He takes the blame in order to divert the blame from his accomplice. Goebbels screams about his mistakes, about his lies, in order to prevent the German people from talking about the lies, mistakes and failures of Hitler.

The Germans talk about it. This is also a fact that stands in the rear of Goebbels. He tries to get away from him. “There is no need to be afraid of the people,” he says, betraying his fear. He puts on a brave face. "You can't have a policeman standing behind every German." But then his voice breaks with fear and anger. He threatens those who are looking for the perpetrators of the defeat of the German army, he hysterically shouts about "dragon measures", about severe reprisals against those Germans who doubt Hitler's strategic talents. He promises to "wage all-out war with even greater ferocity." With new atrocities against the population of the occupied Soviet regions, he calls on the Germans to make up for their defeat!

Day after day during the war, Goebbels piled lies upon lies. He built a huge fortress out of lies, in which the Germans were imprisoned. He fenced off Germany from the whole world with the wall of this fortress. Facts, born by the Red Army, punched holes in the walls of this ghostly fortress. Goebbels managed for the time being to close the gaps with new inventions. But the facts are looming like a solid wall. Facts come from the Volga and Don, from the Neva, from the Terek, from the Kuban, the facts surround Germany from all sides, and Goebbels' fortress is crumbling like a house of cards.

“The truth has been revealed before us in all its nakedness,” Goebbels cries in his false voice. Lying again! With a particle of the truth, he tries to hide the whole truth. No, the truth has not yet been revealed to the German people in all its nakedness. But more is being revealed. The facts of the Red Army drive the Hitlerite lies before them. The rumor is ahead of the German units retreating under the blows of the Red Army. False "frankness" will help Goebbels no more than outright lies. Nazi propaganda cannot escape from the environment of facts. // .

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From the Soviet Information Bureau *

Northeast of Novocherkassk, our troops continued their successful offensive and occupied a number of settlements. The Germans, knocked out of the fortifications on the banks of the Northern Donets, tried to hold on to intermediate lines. With swift blows, our fighters overturned the Nazis and threw them to the west. The N-th unit in fierce battles with the enemy exterminated up to 400 Nazis. Captured 8 guns, 3 mortars, 19 machine guns and other trophies. In another area, two companies of German infantry were surrounded and exterminated. Taken prisoners.

In the Krasnoarmeyskoye area, our troops fought offensive battles. The N-th part in the battle for one settlement destroyed up to a battalion of German infantry and knocked out 12 enemy tanks. In another section, our soldiers captured the fortified positions of the Nazis. The enemy went over to counterattack several times, but did not achieve success. More than 300 enemy corpses and 3 burnt German tanks remained on the battlefield.

In the Chuguev region, our troops continued their offensive. The N-th tank unit, having broken the enemy's defenses, captured two large settlements. In another section, one German unit was surrounded and, as a result of two days of fighting, was exterminated. Up to 800 enemy corpses remained on the battlefield. Taken prisoners. Trophies were captured, including 17 guns, many machine guns, machine guns and rifles.

To the north of Kursk, the fighters of the N-th part repulsed several counterattacks of the German infantry and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. In another section, our units defeated a large detachment of the Nazis and, pursuing them, occupied a settlement. Warehouses with food and uniforms were captured.

A partisan detachment operating in one of the districts of the Vitebsk region, in early February, fought fierce battles with a large punitive detachment of the Nazi invaders. Soviet patriots exterminated more than 200 Nazis. A group of partisans from another detachment operating in the Vileika region derailed an enemy railway echelon. Broken locomotive and 8 wagons. During the crash, 33 Nazis were killed. Train traffic on this section was suspended for several days.

A group of officers of the 82nd German Infantry Division was recently captured. Captured Lieutenant Ludwig Muller, head of the intelligence department of the 82nd division, said: “The defeat of the German troops at Stalingrad and in other sectors of the front made a stunning impression. The newspapers now began to write about the alignment and reduction of the front line. But we know what "reducing the front line" means. Our division was defeated in just two days. On the third day of fighting, no more than 1,000 soldiers remained in the entire division. The Russians broke through our line of defense and moved forward with such speed that we did not even have time to come to our senses. The division commander ran away in a car and I never saw him again.”

German-Hungarian bastards staged a bloody massacre in the village of Marki, Voronezh region. The Nazis seized Soviet citizens and, after much bullying, killed them. In total, the Nazi monsters tortured and shot more than 100 civilians in this village.

Our troops, continuing to develop the offensive, captured the city and the large railway junction of Likhaya, the city and the railway station of Zverevo.

Our troops also occupied the city of Novoshakhtinsk.

In Ukraine, as a result of a stubborn battle, our troops captured the city and the railway station of Zolochev, and also occupied the regional center of Liptsy, the large settlements of Cossack Lopan, Rogan, Kamennaya Yaruga, Taranovka.

In other sectors of the front, our troops fought in the same directions.

On February 12, units of our aviation in various sectors of the front destroyed or damaged up to 300 vehicles with troops and cargo, suppressed the fire of 4 artillery batteries, blew up an ammunition depot and a fuel depot, dispersed and partly destroyed up to two enemy infantry battalions.

In the Shakhta area, our troops developed a successful offensive. The Germans, having retreated from the city, tried to organize defense at another line. Our units broke the resistance of the enemy infantry and captured many large settlements. Captured large trophies that are counted. Our anti-aircraft gunners shot down 4 German aircraft.

In the Voroshilovsk area, our units, overcoming enemy resistance, moved forward. According to incomplete data, more than 1,200 German soldiers and officers were killed. Captured 5 tanks, 2 armored vehicles, 19 guns, 5 anti-tank rifles, 70 vehicles, 80 wagons, 200 horses with harness, 7 locomotives, 2 trains with factory equipment and other trophies.

In the Krasnoarmeiskoye area, our troops fought fierce battles with stubbornly resisting enemy units. The Germans, using infantry and tanks, launched a series of counterattacks, trying to regain lost positions. All counterattacks of the Nazis were repulsed with heavy losses for them. The fighters of the N-th part in the battles for one railway station destroyed 15 German tanks, 6 armored vehicles and captured 8 steam locomotives and 2 armored vehicles. In another section, an enemy detachment of up to 500 people, supported by 14 tanks, attacked the N-th unit. Our gunners and armor-piercers burned and knocked out 5 enemy tanks from open positions. Exterminated up to 300 Nazis. The enemy launched several more unsuccessful counterattacks and, leaving many corpses on the battlefield, as well as 6 wrecked tanks, randomly retreated.

At Lozovaya station, according to preliminary data, our units seized warehouses with engineering equipment, an ammunition warehouse, a food warehouse, a warehouse with flour and grain, 9 steam locomotives, 120 cars, 300 motorcycles and other trophies that are being counted.

In the Chuguev area, our troops continued their offensive and captured a number of settlements. The 320th German Infantry Division was defeated. In the last two days alone, units of this division have lost 3,500 soldiers and officers killed. Captured 20 guns, 200 vehicles and up to 500 carts with loads.

Partisans of a detachment operating in one of the districts of the Mogilev region made several raids on German garrisons. Exterminated. 150 Nazis. In January, the partisans of this detachment derailed 7 enemy railway echelons.

A partisan detachment operating in one of the districts of the Polesye region derailed 11 enemy echelons in January.

On the Volkhov front, a large group of soldiers of the 227th German Grenadier Division was captured. Captured soldiers of the 366th regiment of this division Johann Gonner, Bernhard Dieckmann, corporal Ernst Fitz, chief corporal Willy Brand and others said: “Russian artillery fire devastated many of our units. The battalion commanders transmitted orders over the radio one after another - to hold positions at all costs. However, Russian tanks broke through the line of defense. The infantry followed them. The Russians burst into our trenches, and all the German soldiers who were in them, without prior agreement, as if on command, raised their hands.

In the village of Staraya Stanitsa, Rostov Region, the Nazi scoundrels burned alive 18 captured Red Army soldiers, the collective farmer Praskovya Shinkareva and her two children. The day before the arrival of the Red Army, the Germans set fire to the farm. The fire destroyed 147 houses of collective farmers, a school, a club, barns and all other outbuildings. //

TO Many people in Russia once knew Kryuchkov's name.
Posters with his image hung in schools, even postcards were issued. Cartoonists liked to portray him as an epic Russian hero, famously dealing with clumsy Germans. And he fully deserved his fame.

It was August 1914. The fighting on the fronts of the First World War was just unfolding. A reconnaissance party of four Cossacks from the 3rd Don Cossack Regiment left for reconnaissance in the vicinity of the city of Suwalki. The 24-year-old clerk from the village of Nizhne-Kalmykov of the village of Ust-Khoperskaya, Kozma Firsovich Kryuchkov, was also placed at the head of the party.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, heading from the city of Kalvaria to the estate of Aleksandrovo, the Cossacks stumbled upon the German patrol of the 10th cavalry chasseur regiment. It consisted of 27 riders. TWENTY SEVEN! Led by officers. The Germans, delighted with easy prey, decided to capture three Cossacks. And the Cossacks, to the considerable surprise of the Fritz, did not run away, but on the contrary, they themselves went on the attack on a sevenfold superior and better armed enemy!

Kozma Kryuchkov, on his frisky horse, overtook his comrades and was the first to crash into the enemy detachment. However, at the very beginning of the battle, one of the Germans slashed his fingers with a saber and Kryuchkov dropped his rifle. The Cossacks left without a spade. The Germans, armed with peaks, did not give the Cossacks the opportunity to get them with checkers. Two Prussians with pikes attacked Kryuchkov, trying to knock him out of the saddle, but Kryuchkov grabbed the enemy pikes with his hands, pulled them towards him and threw both Germans off their horses.

Then, armed with a captured pike, Kryuchkov again rushed into battle. The rest of the Cossacks, who arrived in time, for a moment saw Kryuchkov, surrounded by the Prussians and waving his saber to the right and left. One of the Cossacks, Vasily Astakhov, saw a German officer squeezing towards Kryuchkov in this dump. With a shot from a rifle at a gallop, Astakhov killed an enemy officer.

Participants of that battle Kozma Kryuchkov, Ivan Shchegolkov and Vasily Astakhov

Of the 27 Germans, only three survived - they fled into the forest, located not far from the battlefield.

Kryuchkov one destroyed 11 Germans and himself received 16 wounds, one of which was a gunshot. Kryuchkov's horse, which had 11 wounds, carried the unconscious owner from the battlefield. After lying down after the battle for five days in the infirmary, Kozma Kryuchkov returned to the regiment and received leave to his homeland.

For this feat, clerk Kozma Kryuchkov was awarded the title of Knight of St. George, thus becoming the first Knight of St. George of the First World War.

The feat of Kozma Kryuchkov was widely popularized by official propaganda, and soon the Don Cossack became a folk hero.

Subsequently, Kozma Kryuchkov received two more crosses and two St. George medals, and by the end of the war he had risen to the rank of cadet. After the February Revolution, Kryuchkov was elected chairman of the regimental committee, and after the collapse of the front, he returned to the Don together with the regiment.

Kozma Kryuchkov died on August 18, 1919 in a battle near the village of Lopukhovka, Saratov province, fighting on the side of the Whites as part of the 13th Don Cossack Ataman Nazarov Regiment. Kozma Firsovich Kryuchkov was buried in the cemetery of his native farm. Naturally, after the victory of the Great October Revolution, the Cossack's feat was forgotten for a long time .... but now it's time to remember.