Gorky plants in the years of the Second World War. Gorky during the war years: everything for the front, everything for the Victory. Hell non-stop

At the end of 1939, due to the reduction in the production of the main products, the range of the Gorky Automobile Plant was expanded with military products. According to the mobilization plan, introduced on September 1, 1939, the automobile plant was ordered to master the production of shells for mines, armor-piercing shells, fuses for aerial bombs, etc.

In the same 1939, in the mechanical shop No. 3, the armature-radiator, forge-and-press shops and the chassis shop, the production of cases for 50-mm mines was organized (the final production of mines was carried out at the Gorky enterprises Krasnaya Etna and the Milling Machine Plant), 45 -mm armor-piercing shells and AM-A fuses for aircraft bombs. In addition, the production of wheels for 76-mm divisional guns, 45-mm anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns, charging boxes, howitzer limbers, etc. was significantly increased in the wheel shop.

From a speech on the radio by V.M. Molotov:“June 22, 1941, at 4 o’clock in the morning, without presenting any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed our cities from their aircraft.”

By 1941, the Gorky Automobile Plant was a huge industrial complex in the machine-building industry of the USSR and possessed modern equipment, the latest technologies, highly qualified personnel and a number of branches and allied plants (ZATI, Krasnaya Etna and others), which constituted a powerful production base.

By this time, the automobile plant had mastered the serial production of a wide range of trucks, three-axle off-road trucks, gas generating GAZ-42 , dump trucks GAZ-410 and LPG trucks GAZ-44 and GAZ-45 , as well as preparations were made for the release of promising models GAZ-11-40 , GAZ-11-73 and GAZ-61-40 .

With the outbreak of war, the production of civilian products faded into the background and more attention was paid to military equipment. The factory capacities were loaded with the release of GAZ-64, GAZ-67 and GAZ-67B for army command personnel, as well as BA-64 armored vehicles. In March 1941, even before the start of the war, the production of staff GAZ-05-193 and sanitary buses GAZ-03-32 and GAZ-55 , and the production of passenger cars GAZ-03-30 receded into the background and in July was completely curtailed.

FACT: "On Saturday, July 21, 1941, the 1,000,000th engine rolled off the assembly line of the Gorky Automobile Plant."

And the very next day, the Great Patriotic War began ... Here is how the Gorky Commune newspaper wrote about it on July 1, 1941:

“Seeing you to the Red Army, we promise to work in such a way as to give our army an excess of shells, machine guns, tanks, aircraft, cars ... And if tomorrow the country calls us into the ranks of the Red Army, we, like everyone else, with weapons in the hands of let's go mercilessly beat the enemy. Wives, mothers, sisters will replace us at the machines.

On June 22, 1941, on the square near the main entrance of the Gorky Automobile Plant, a factory-wide rally was held, at which the factory workers, one after another, spoke from an impromptu tribune with the only thought of fighting the enemy: “... We declare ourselves mobilized to defend our beloved Motherland and are ready to work and fight, sparing no effort until complete victory over the enemy!

On June 26, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the Decree “On the working hours of workers and employees in wartime”, according to which the working day was increased, mandatory overtime work lasting from one to three hours was introduced, and vacations were cancelled.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Gorky Automobile Plant began to receive huge volumes of new urgent orders for the development of military products, while the technology for their production sometimes did not match the equipment available at the plant. So, according to the mobilization plan, introduced by the order of the People's Commissariat of Medium Machine Building on June 24, 1941, the Gorky Automobile Plant was to produce 13 million 45-mm armor-piercing shells and 8 million AM-A fuses. However, with the outbreak of war, equipment for expanding aircraft engine production was removed from the shell and explosive shops, which before the war was separated into an independent plant and in July 1941 was reattached as a department of aircraft and tank engines. However, even with three-shift work, the capacity of the plant's production equipment did not allow the production of more than 7 million shells and 5 million fuses. For this reason, the mobilization plan for the manufacture of ammunition for 1941 was corrected. In the future, it was planned to obtain equipment for ammunition workshops by reducing the production of certain car models and completely stopping the production of bicycles and consumer goods. By the end of the year, the plant received a new task to master the production of 57-mm armor-piercing shells instead of 45-mm shells.

In addition to the production of M-105R aircraft engines, in the department of aviation and tank engines, it was ordered to organize the production of MM-6002 engines for light artillery tractors of the Komsomolets type, GAZ-202 twin engines for light tanks and M-17 diesel engines for T-34 tanks, which manufactured at the factory in Sormovo.

In July 1941, the Gorky Automobile Plant received a new task to organize the production of sidecars for M-72 army motorcycles, which were made by the Gorky Motorcycle Plant, in the reinforcement shop.

Also on the factory floor it was required to arrange the production of light tanks. It was decided to take as a basis the T-60 model, which in the summer of 1940 was urgently developed at the Moscow Tank Plant No. were supplied directly from the Gorky Automobile Plant. Then the State Defense Committee (GKO) decided to transfer the design bureau for light tanks from plant No. 37 to GAZ. Already in September 1941, the first two tanks were manufactured at the plant, and their mass production began in October.

In December 1941, the production of 1-AP-1.5 single-axle trailers was launched at the Gorky Automobile Plant (then other enterprises mounted camp kitchens on these trailers) and the assembly of Marmon-Harrington imported trucks from Lend-Lease, which were intended for mounting mortars salvo fire BM-13.

FACT: “During the Great Patriotic War, work shifts at the Gorky Automobile Plant lasted 20-30 hours with breaks for food and a short sleep. The workers who went to the front were replaced by factory veterans, women and young students of factory schools. More than 5,000 women were trained in the professions of a blacksmith, steelworker, heater, molder, etc. in a short time. During the first year of the war, 11,500 new workers came to the plant.”

On the night of November 4-5, 1941, a massive German air raid was carried out on the Gorky Automobile Plant, which even barrage anti-aircraft artillery fire could not stop. As a result of the bombardment, the training complex was destroyed and engulfed in flames, the transport workshop and several residential buildings were partially destroyed. Sotsgorodok .

With the beginning of the evacuation of the Stalin Moscow Plant to the east of the country, urgent measures were required to increase trucks at the Gorky Automobile Plant, since the Red Army suffered huge losses in automotive equipment. At the beginning of 1942, due to an acute shortage of thin cold-rolled steel and many other parts, the design of all manufactured cars was revised towards maximum simplification. So trucks and buses, to reduce components, lost secondary parts, cab doors, one headlight, front brakes and front bumper, the sides of the loading platform were no longer made folding, and to save sheet metal, instead of stamping, the front fenders were now bent and welded from sheet iron. Such trucks were designated GAZ-MM . In the second half of 1942, doors were returned to cars, but not with metal, but with wooden outer skin and with sliding windows instead of sliding windows. In addition, the plant mass-produced GAZ-55 sanitary and GAZ-05-193 staff buses, GAZ-64 cars and BA-64 armored vehicles, and also assembled imported cars from vehicle kits supplied to the USSR under Lend-Lease.

At the end of 1941, a special workshop was organized at the enterprise for the production of shells for BM-13 multiple launch rocket launchers. Factory engineers improved the technology of their production: for the first time, the stamp-welded method was used, which made it possible to reduce the consumption of metal, electricity and tools. In 1942, the production of 300-mm (M-30) and 82-mm (M-8) shells for rockets was additionally mastered. In addition, the plant produced 82-mm battalion mortars, receiver and bolt boxes and liners for the Shpagin submachine gun (PPSh), RPG-1 hand grenades, parts for MUV-13 fuses, as well as stampings and forgings for 25-mm and 37- mm anti-aircraft automatic guns.

FACT: "On December 29, 1941, the Gorky Automobile Plant was awarded the Order of Lenin for the exemplary fulfillment of the party's tasks for the production of defense products."

In 1942, the plant continued to increase the production of defense products. 450 new parts, assemblies, forgings and castings were produced for other defense industry plants, the production of T-70 tanks and GAZ-98 snowmobiles, M-30 shells, MM goniometers and GAZ-417 bodies for foreign trucks coming under Lend-Lease was mastered .

In May 1942, a group of officers of the Main Armaments Directorate developed a 300 mm caliber rocket, which was named M-30. The main feature of the projectile was the launch directly from the wood-metal container. To do this, it was necessary to place it in such a way that the projectile flying under the action of powder gases followed a ballistic trajectory. Although the range of the projectile was only 2800 meters, it had enormous destructive power and, with a direct hit by the M-30, was capable of destroying any wood-and-earth fortification. Reinforced concrete pillboxes, although they withstood the impact of this projectile, however, the pillbox fighters received severe shell shock. Soon it was decided to place the production of these rockets at the Gorky Automobile Plant.

The note: "Russian faustpatron" - such a nickname among the Germans at the end of the war received shells M-30 and M-31.

The leadership of Nazi Germany perfectly understood the role of the Gorky Automobile Plant in the defense of the USSR and by any means tried to disable the automobile plant, which supplied the army with trucks, armored vehicles, light tanks and power units for tanks, as well as shells, mines and small arms. Approximately on June 5-6, 1943 The Germans planned a massive air strike on Moscow. To protect the capital, air defense was urgently strengthened. Then the Nazis abandoned the original plan and decided to completely destroy the industrial and economic potential of the Gorky region.

The first massive German air raid on the automobile plant and Sotsgorod was carried out on the night of June 4-5, 1943. High-explosive bombs destroyed the steam forge of forging machines and the substation that receives electric current from Gorenergo, and also partially damaged the spring shop and forge No. 3. Wooden paneling flared up in many shops from incendiary bombs, and the entire automobile plant was on fire. Over the next few nights, many workshops were destroyed from the constant German bombing, the main power facilities were disabled, the main communication networks were seriously damaged, and the flow production cycle was disrupted.

In total, during the German bombing, a large number of workers and production managers died, and 50 buildings and structures were destroyed or damaged:

• the chassis shop, the main conveyor, the thermal shop No. 2, the wheel shop, the main material store, the locomotive depot and the assembly shop were completely burned down;
• in the foundries of malleable and gray iron, the core, non-ferrous casting and electric furnaces were destroyed;
• the forge building, the engine shop No. 2, the tool and die building, the mechanical repair shop and the press and body building were subjected to great destruction;
• many houses, a kindergarten, a nursery and a hospital in the car factory settlement were damaged;
• both water pipelines that supplied water to the thermal power plant were destroyed, and the water supply of the city and the plant was also disrupted;
• power lines that connected the Gorky Automobile Plant with the Gorenergo system were interrupted;
• the failure of two peat boilers sharply reduced the capacity of the CHPP;
• the destruction of six compressors with a total capacity of 21,000 cubic meters and damage to other compressors deprived the car factory of compressed air;
• 5900 units or 51% of technological equipment were damaged in 32 workshops;
• 8000 electric motors were damaged, and 5620 of them became completely unusable;
• 9,180 meters of conveyors and conveyors, more than 300 electric welding machines, 28 overhead cranes, 8 workshop substations and 14,000 sets of electrical equipment and instruments were destroyed or badly damaged.

The State Defense Committee (GKO) decided to return the former director to the destroyed automobile plant, who in October 1942 was transferred from GAZ to the USSR Ministry of Power Plants. After all, only this person knew the employees and the enterprise thoroughly and could restore the plant and production in a short time.

The note: “Few people believed that after the Nazi air raids in the summer of 1943, the Gorky Automobile Plant could be restored. However, the factory workers raised it from the ruins in just 100 days - and it became a real miracle.

To fulfill the tasks set by the State Defense Committee, the team of the automobile plant carried out major organizational and technical measures, mobilized all available resources and organized assistance to the arrived builders and installers. Building organizations, related plants and military units were widely involved in the restoration of the automobile plant.

In a short time, the main networks and power facilities, water supply to the territory of the plant and workshops were restored, the work of railway transport was resumed, and repairs and restoration of tools and equipment were organized.

In the very first days, repair bases were organized to restore technological equipment directly in the affected shops. Complicated repairs were carried out in the mechanical repair shop.

By July 1, 1943, 3,106 units, or 55% of the equipment that needed to be restored, had been repaired. Even before the completion of the full restoration, the first products began to leave the shops. On June 14, the forge began to work, on June 18, the foundry, and on July 19, the production of wheels began. From many workshops, the surviving equipment was simply taken out into the street and production was carried out in the open. So, thanks to the stock of parts and armored hulls, the production of tanks did not stop for a single day. By July 15, the foundry was fully restored and the production of ammunition was resumed. Already on July 25, the plant produced the first five cars, and in September their output reached the previous volumes. On October 23, 1943, factory workers and builders sent a report to the State Defense Committee on the restoration of the Gorky Automobile Plant.

In 1943, a line for the production of M-31 shells was created at the Gorky Automobile Plant, which were previously manufactured in different workshops, which created huge organizational difficulties with a high rate of production of these shells.

FACT: “On March 9, 1944, the Gorky Automobile Plant was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the early liquidation of fascist air raids, the successful fulfillment of the tasks of the State Defense Committee to master the production of new equipment and weapons, and the exemplary supply of military products to the front.”

In May 1944, the Gorky Automobile Plant received an order from the State Defense Committee to start mass production of airfield decking units in July, with a production program of up to 120,000 per year. This task turned out to be quite difficult for the car plant: the technology of stamping 3-meter parts required the use of presses of enormous power and dimensions, moreover, such a quantity of flooring production with a limited number of powerful press equipment at the plant could paralyze all other production. It was necessary to provide for the maximum productivity of the equipment, to ensure the uninterrupted supply of blanks, the collection and disposal of waste and the export of finished products. For this, laboratory studies and experimental work were carried out and two parallel stamping production lines were created with minimal rescheduling of heavy equipment. The entire organization of the flooring site with all design, construction, installation, experimental and design work, with the manufacture and adjustment of stamps, was completed in just 40 days.

On May 9, 1945, at 2:10 am, announcer Yu.B. Levitan announced on the radio: “Comrades! A few minutes ago in Berlin, the Act of unconditional surrender of the German armed forces was signed to the Supreme High Command of the Red Army and at the same time to the High Command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces! The Great Patriotic War ended victoriously! With victory, comrades!

On the morning of May 10, at the Gorky Automobile Plant, under the heading "Emergency", an order was issued by the director I.K. Loskutov with congratulations to the labor collective on the Victory. This day was declared a day off at the enterprise with a rally of many thousands.

FACT: "On September 16, 1945, the Gorky Automobile Plant was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, for the successful completion of the tasks of the State Defense Committee for the production of artillery mounts for the Red Army."

However, the end of the Great Patriotic War did not mean the end of World War II. The government of the USSR was bound by obligations with the allies and had certain military plans in the east of the country. Therefore, the production of military products at the Gorky Automobile Plant was not stopped and the production of self-propelled artillery mounts, armored vehicles, light all-terrain vehicles GAZ-67B, sidecars for military motorcycles, ammunition and the assembly of imported trucks coming under Lend-Lease continued in the same volumes.

The plant itself was also being restored: in 1945, 35 thousand square meters of new space were built for the production of new products, the thermal power plant was expanded and reconstructed and transferred from fuel oil to coal, a new engine building was built for the production of six-cylinder GAZ-51 engines.

FACT: “On April 27, 1946, the Gorky Automobile Plant for success in the All-Union Socialist Competition received for eternal storage the challenge Red Banner of the GKO, which was awarded 33 times during the war.”

bitter was subjected to massive air strikes from 1941 to 1943. During the war, enemy bombers made 43 raids, 26 of which were at night, during which 33,934 incendiary bombs and 1,631 high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city.

Gorky before the start of the bombing

The city came to the attention of the Germans even during the development of Operation Barbarossa to defeat the USSR. He was then one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of weapons to the Red Army. The complete capture of Gorky and its transfer under its control was planned by Nazi Germany in the second half of September 1941. First, the Nazis had to destroy the defense industry of the city - the Gorky Automobile Plant, the Lenin Plants, Sokol, Krasnoye Sormovo and Dvigatel Revolyutsii. After the capture, it was planned to create General Okrug Gorky or General Okrug Nizhny Novgorod included in Reichskommissariat Muscovy. The Gorky Machine-Building Plant was planned to be re-equipped for the production of German military equipment.

On October 31, 1941, I.V. Stalin's order came to the automobile plant that it was necessary to sharply increase the production of T-60 light tanks and start 10 tanks a day in the next 2-3 days, since the Bashzavod could not fully fulfill its functions.

The city leadership knew that Gorky could be attacked by German aircraft at any moment and it was necessary to strengthen the city's air defense and mask the factories. However, the necessary measures were not carried through to the end, and the camouflage of objects was especially lagging behind. At the radiotelephone plant number 197 named after. Lenin held an emergency meeting dedicated to the camouflage of the plant. After him, on November 1, a plan was approved, according to which it was necessary to give the plant the appearance of a residential village on the outskirts of Gorky. In terms of air defense, the plant was completely ready.

N. V. Markov was appointed commander of the Gorky Air Defense Brigade District in October 1941. Arriving in Gorky, he saw in what a deplorable state the defense of the city was, which was literally "stuffed" with the most important strategic objects. It had only about 50 anti-aircraft guns and a few searchlights.

German air attacks

November 1941

Enemy raids on Gorky began in October 1941. German planes reconnoitered the situation in the city. They flew across the city at high altitude, hovering over the car factory. After that, the bombing began in Dzerzhinsk, Gorky region.

On the afternoon of November 4, Nazi planes appeared in the sky on Gorky. They flew very low, almost touching the roofs of houses. They flew singly or in groups of 3-16 aircraft. At first, the Gorky residents mistook them for a German reconnaissance group, so they simply watched the flights. The main goal of the Luftwaffe was the Gorky Automobile Plant. Two bombers flew towards him at once. One of them swept along Molodyozhny Avenue and headed straight for the car factory. According to eyewitnesses, the plane was rapidly approaching the mechanical repair shop of the plant. Then the first bombs began to fall from the plane. There was a terrible roar. Fragments of the workshop and buildings flew everywhere, the fire burst out and everything was shrouded in smoke. Then the bomb fell in the factory canteen. Everyone inside was instantly killed. Panic arose at the plant and all the workers rushed to the checkpoints. But the watchmen refused to let people out of the plant and did not open the doors. Then people began to climb over the gate. At that moment, the enemy "Heinkel" had already turned around and, flying up to the checkpoints, fired a lot of machine-gun bursts into the crowd. Then he disappeared, flying over the Avtozavodsky district and shooting frightened Gorky residents along the way. People on the move jumped out of trams and cars, trying to run to shelters.

The second plane flew to the Avtozavodskaya CHPP. He dropped two bombs on her. One of them completely destroyed the new part of the building under construction. The second only broke through the roof and got stuck in the rafters, but did not explode.

At the same time, a third bomber raided the Lenin plant in the Voroshilovsky district. From the blows, 2 shops were completely destroyed - woodworking and assembly. Two other workshops were severely damaged, and electrical substation No. 3 was disabled by the blast. At the neighboring plant named after Frunze, in the workshops, windows were broken and plaster was sprinkled. At the factories and at the nearby Myza station, panic broke out and the workers, leaving their seats, rushed to the checkpoints.

The bomber, meanwhile, flew to the center of Gorky, inspecting local attractions. Over the Kremlin, he made a "lap of honor" and, after that, disappeared. Unfortunately, on that day, the Kremlin defenses were not yet ready. An employee of the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Anna Alexandrovna Korobova, after that, recalled:

A little later, another plane appeared from the direction of Ankudinovka. He headed towards the Engine of the Revolution. Flying up to the plant, he dropped a BM1000 mine on it. A powerful explosion that thundered in the power station threw the workers of the plant to the floor, covering them with glass fragments. A huge fire started in the building. The blast wave and shrapnel damaged power lines, and part of the Leninsky district was left without electricity.

Half an hour later, at about 5 pm, after a raid on the Dvigatel Revolutsii diesel plant, two more Heinkels flew up to the city. By that time it was already getting dark in Gorky. Planes again flew to the car factory. They dropped several bombs on the GAZ area, but because of the darkness and smoke, the pilots were unable to accurately aim. Most of the bombs fell between the buildings and in the wastelands. This time the invasion did not go unnoticed, and the enemy planes were attacked by a detachment of fighters and three LaGG-3 squadrons of Major Nikolai Alifanov. But the attack was repulsed. "Heinkels" damaged 2 Soviet aircraft. Half an hour later, the Gorky residents again noticed an enemy aircraft. Flying over the car factory, he dropped 3 bombs on the assembly shop. Then he turned around and hit the "Engine of the Revolution" and the machine tool factory. After 20 minutes, the attack on GAZ was repeated. However, these bombardments turned out to be almost fruitless for the Nazi pilots. The bombs fell past their targets, causing minor damage to buildings. After these bombings, there was a lull in Gorky.

But it was short-lived. At about half past nine in the evening, an enemy Luftwaffe plane reappeared in the Gorky sky. And this time he set his sights on the car factory and dropped 4 bombs on the workshops. After that, he flew to the Leninsky district and fired 10 high-explosive bombs at him. After this bombing, the inhabitants of the city began to clean up the consequences. At one in the morning, from the direction of Moscow, three bombers flew into Gorky. They were just returning from the shelling of the capital. The city's warning system did not work, so very soon the bombs again whistled on the heads of the Gorky residents. 20 minutes later, another mine fell on the car factory. The blow was of such force that the blast wave swept through all the workshops, destroying both machines and people in its path. Landmines fell on Oktyabrskaya Street, in the villages of Nagulino and Gnilitsy.

However, the local newspaper "Gorky Commune" did not say a word about the raids on the city.

June 1943

On the morning of June 4, the Germans studied Gorky's maps. Flight patterns and bombing tactics were developed. At first, Wehrmacht officers thought that Moscow would be the target, however, it later became clear that the raid was to be on the largest center of production and industry.

At about 10:30 p.m., the Gorky Air Defense Headquarters received an alarming message from Moscow that a large group of bombers had passed from the front line over Tula and was moving northeast. At 23:56 an air raid alert was issued. It was adopted and duplicated throughout the city at factories, railway stations and administrative offices. But, as it turned out, after the whistle of the sirens, negligence was shown at many facilities during blackout and defense. So at the large railway station Gorky-Sortirovochny, several windows were unmasked, illuminating the territory of the depot to the enemy. As a result, the central lighting was turned off throughout the city. Anti-aircraft gunners began to prepare to repel the raid, and barrage balloons appeared over the city.

At 00:10 from the VNOS posts in Vyazniki and Kulebaki they began to report on the approach of enemy aircraft to the center of Gorky. Then reports came in that the first planes were already on their way to the city. The anti-aircraft installations of the 742nd ZenAP were the first to fire, then artillery from other sectors joined.

The first enemy planes dropped several lighting bombs over Gorky. In order to disorient the Soviet air defense and not make it clear what was the main object of the bombardment, the bombs immediately illuminated 4 areas: Avtozavodsky, Leninsky, Stalinsky and Kaganovichesky. The so-called "chandelier" was also dropped over the Oka Bridge.

The first group of Ju-88s attacked the water intake stations on the Oka River and the water supply system of the Avtozavodsky district. A direct hit destroyed the water supply and heating control unit. Several bombs hit the Avtozavodskaya CHPP, as a result of which all turbogenerators were stopped. The factory electrical substation failed. GAS turned out to be cut off from the water supply and completely de-energized.

Following, groups of "Junkers" and "Heinkels" approached the city. Their main target was GAZ. In addition to high-explosive and fragmentation bombs, they also had incendiary bombs in their arsenal. The factory sectors were divided between squadrons. The main blow fell on the forging, foundry and mechanical assembly shops. From the hit of high-explosive and incendiary bombs in the machine assembly shop No. 1, a large fire started.

That night, the repulsion of the raid proved to be extremely ineffective. There was no operational fire control in the anti-aircraft regiments. The teams came to the batteries late and did not correspond to the real situation in Gorky. During the bombing, communication with the command was completely cut off. There was also no interaction with the searchlighters, so not a single enemy aircraft that fell under the searchlight was fired upon. A long lull in the city, when it seemed that the war was already far away, played a role in the unsuccessful defense.

Meanwhile, the closing group of bombers was moving towards the city. According to the recollections of the pilots, a huge flaming cloud and clouds of smoke rose above the city, which made it difficult to aim accurately and hit the target. As a result, the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on the surrounding houses and villages. Many residential buildings and barracks were destroyed in the Avtozavodsky district, the American village and the village of Strigino.

Air defense and city defense

In October 1941, Colonel S. V. Slyusarev arrived at the airfield of the city of Seimas, Gorky Region, to receive three new regiments equipped with LaGG-3 fighters. Here he stayed for some time, trying to establish a turbulent situation in the city.

After the November raids on Gorky, the colonel received an order from Comrade Stalin to immediately leave for the city for defense "Gorky district" as the commander-in-chief put it. Slyusarev set off on the same night, despite the snow and frost. He later said:

First of all, Colonel Slyusarev ordered to establish day and night patrols for Gorky. He did this, rather, to calm the Gorky residents frightened by the bombing. Immediately after this decision, he headed back to the Seimas, where 8 air regiments were located. O ordered to disperse them over the airfields of the divisional area.

In December, the organizing committee decided to create several large bomb shelters in the Upper part of the city. By February 15, 1942, it was planned to build 5 objects:

1. Kremlin - Ivanovsky congress under the Mininsky garden,
2. Embankment them. Zhdanov - opposite the Gorky Industrial Institute,
3. Postal congress on Mayakovsky street,
4. Romodanovsky station,
5. The ravine at the end of the street. Vorobyov.

They were built by 2300 people. Also, trenches were dug throughout the city and its borders and defensive fortifications were erected. However, later they were not needed, since on December 5, 1941, the Red Army went on the offensive.

Gorky's disguise

In addition to the air defense of the city, the government of the Soviet Union adopted a cunning tactic. It was decided to build a number of "false objects" in Gorky. In the archives of Nizhny Novgorod, a document has been preserved under the title: “Resolution of the Gorky City Defense Committee“ On the construction of false objects of industrial enterprises in the city of Gorky “” dated August 1, 1942.

In order to divert enemy aircraft from defense facilities, the Defense Committee decides: 1. To create on the outskirts of the city of Gorky a number of false objects that imitate the actual defense facilities of the city. Approve the deployment of false objects provided by the Gorky Air Defense Corps District and the headquarters of the Gorky Air Defense Forces. Suggest to plant directors: No. 21 “…”, No. 92 “…”, No. 112 “…”, automobile plant named after. Molotov "...", them. Lenin “…” and the glass factory named after M. Gorky “…” immediately develop projects of false objects, coordinate them with the headquarters of the city’s MPVO and carry out construction before August 15 of this year. Directors of these enterprises to provide facilities with communications and special teams for the protection and implementation of special instructions from the command in the conditions of air raids. 3. The procedure for the operational commissioning of false objects should be developed by the commander of the Gorky air defense corps area together with the head of the MPVO of the city of Gorky. Chairman of the Gorky Defense Committee M. Rodionov

As a result of this decision, a huge model of the Automobile Plant was built in the village of Mordvintsevo, near Fedyakovo. It was made mainly of glass and plywood. At night, a light burned on its territory, which turned off belatedly after an air raid was announced. German bombers began to get confused and bombed the dummy instead of the plant itself.

Another important strategic object for camouflage was the Dvigatel Revolyutsii plant. By that time it was already pretty destroyed, but continued to work. To disguise it, the Gorky residents used the “Moscow” street painting technology. Directly along the street and along the plant itself, drawings were drawn depicting private houses and urban development. Thus, they "extended" the village of Molitovka directly to the territory of the plant. The "Engine of the Revolution" visually disappeared for the pilots. From a great height, only a false village was visible.

A different camouflage technology was used on the Kanavinsky Bridge. For this, boats were launched into the water, which were always near the bridge. When an air raid alert was announced, they released a special dense smoke screen. And, as soon as the Nazis tried to destroy the bridge, they failed because of poor visibility.

spy story
Why did the Germans hit GAZ so accurately

Who handed over the coordinates of the Gorky Automobile Plant to the Germans during the Great Patriotic War and why only 30 years later they found the alleged informant. More

Main checkpoint GAZ

The city of Gorky during the Second World War suffered greatly because of its openness. In the 1930s, foreigners worked at his defense enterprises, including those from "friendly" Germany. One of these people during the war years, a Luftwaffe general, probably “surrendered” the Gorky Automobile Plant to the Germans, because of which it was almost completely destroyed. It is officially known that scouts came to the city after the war, so the "spy mania" of the 1950s could be justified here.

German in the city

In the 1940s, every second car, every third tank, and every fourth artillery mount was made in Gorky.

The city of Gorky, being one of the most important industrial centers of the country, was also one of the main targets for fascist aviation, - says RP Vladimir Somov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of History and Politics of Russia, Lobachevsky State University. - During the three war years, from 1941 to 1943, 47 raids were carried out on the Gorky region, in which 811 aircraft participated.

The first raid took place on November 4, 1941. Then the Gorky Automobile Plant became the target of the Germans. As the factory workers wrote in their diaries and memoirs, the planes flew so low that a swastika could be discerned on their wings. Bombs separated from them and with a howl flew to the ground.

Vasily Lapshin, who during the war worked at the Gorky Automobile Plant as chief power engineer, kept his diary from December 1, 1940 and throughout the war. After the bombing, he writes: “In the morning, burnt corpses were visible, body parts scattered around. It was terrible to look at this picture.

As follows from Lapshin's diary, the plant workers quickly reorganized and got used to air raids. During the shooting, the workers continued to work at the machines. And the floor at the plant was flooded with water so that a fire would not start from the falling of the burning fragments of the building.

In June 1943, preparing for an offensive near Kursk, the German command decided to deliver a massive blow to the industrial centers of the Volga region. In this regard, it was decided to camouflage the strategically important buildings of the city. In the Kstovsky district, not far from the modern village of Fedyakova, a so-called “false object” was built from glass and plywood - a huge dummy of GAZ to deceive German aviation. But the Germans still bombed a real factory.

As the director of the GAZ Museum said Natalia Kolesnikova, “on the evening of June 4, 45 Heinkel-111 twin-engine bombers from the KG-27 and KG-55 squadrons took off from airfields in the Orel and Bryansk region, heading for Gorky ... Of the 45 aircraft, 20 broke through to the city. They hung on parachutes about 80 lighting rockets. It became brighter than even during the day. They dropped 289 high-explosive bombs, 260 of them on a car factory. During the first raid, the main conveyor of the automobile plant, the spring shop, and forge No. 3 were put out of action. Several houses and a hospital were destroyed in the area. Dozens of fires broke out, the water supply and communications were interrupted.”

This was followed by two more raids: on the night of June 5-6, in which 80 Heinkels participated, and the next night - 157. In this third, most terrible raid, 12 workshops, warehouses, depots were destroyed, but most of all suffered wheel shop. It was he who was the most important object. Here, in particular, wheels for cannons, rollers for all T-34 tanks, shells for Katyusha rocket launchers and much more were made. It is no coincidence that Beria, who came incognito to the plant in June 1943, was instructed by Stalin to restore the wheel shop immediately, at any cost. Experts then concluded that it would take several years. However, by the heroic efforts of people, the plant was restored in 100 days and nights, by the end of October 1943.

But why, after all, did the Germans purposefully bomb GAZ, and not camouflage? Later it turned out that a man who supplied the enemies with secret information had previously worked here.

A stand dedicated to the Gorky residents of the Great Patriotic War. "Mosaic" made from photographs of members of the Eternal Regiment

- The memoirs of Chinchenko, one of the veterans of the plant (Fyodor Demyanovich Chinchenko, State Prize winner, five-time winner of VDNH, Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod. - RP) have been preserved: in 1943 he was deputy head of the wheel shop. He could not understand why the car factory was bombed so fiercely, despite the fact that he was carefully disguised, advises the RP Marina Marchenko, Deputy Director of the Socio-Political Archive of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, - And only in September 1976, when Chinchenko was in Berlin at a meeting of the CMEA (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. - RP), he met a former employee of the headquarters of the air corps of the long-range aviation of Germany, Mr. Niederer.

“He showed us a photo, in the center of which I saw my former boss at GAZ, Leopold Fink,” Chinchenko later recalled at a meeting of veterans dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the Gorky Automobile Plant. - In the picture he was in a general's uniform. And at the car factory before the war, he designed all underground communications, and then worked for us as the deputy head of the plant's quality control department (OTK - Technical Control Department. - RP). So I knew everything about the car factory of 1932-1937.” This fact is given in the book of historians Anna Goreva and Alexei Vdovin "Everything for Victory".

Leopold Fink worked under a contract signed by Molotov. And in 1937, he and his family were expelled from the USSR in 24 hours. Little is known about his subsequent fate. According to Chinchenko, in 1943 he commanded a strategic aviation corps in Germany. Since then, Fink's traces have been broken off. He did not attend the CMEA meeting. Maybe he died during the war, was taken prisoner, or, as a representative of the German command, received a long sentence. Or maybe he lived almost to the present day ...

Bought maps and literature

I think this "spy" story could well have actually happened, - says Vladimir Somov. - And foreign specialists were really involved in the construction of the automobile plant. Including the German ones. Let me remind you that before the war there was an agreement on cooperation between the USSR and Germany. It is quite possible that this same Fink really did work for us under a contract for some time, and with the outbreak of the war he supplied the Germans with information known to him. Either this is a huge miscalculation of our special services. By the way, we had similar cases in our region. Therefore, this partly justifies both repressions and “spy mania” during the war years.

Gorky has always been a tasty morsel for all sorts of "enemy scouts."

Our city was not accidentally closed until the 1990s, - Marina Marchenko notes. - Why were foreigners not allowed to visit us? Because we had many enterprises of the defense complex that produced weapons. Foreign specialists still came to us to work under a contract. But they stayed here only within certain limits. In the early 1990s, the status of a "closed city" was lifted, and Nizhny became accessible to foreigners.

As the historian Alexander Osipov notes in the book “From the History of the Nizhny Novgorod Special Services”, in 1956, 78 foreigners from capitalist countries visited Gorky, including 22 established intelligence agents. And in 1957 - already 245 guests from the capitalist countries, including 26 official intelligence officers from the diplomatic corps. “While in the city, foreigners bought various maps, reference books, military, scientific and technical literature, books characterizing the economy of the USSR and individual regions in stores,” writes Osipov. - Foreign intelligence officers not only studied military facilities from the outside, but also tried to penetrate there. Traveling around the city and region by taxi, foreigners intensively interviewed taxi drivers, asking them, in particular, questions about the population of Gorky, the financial situation of citizens, the names of some enterprises, and the former names of the streets of the city.

As a result, the shameless actions of the visitors forced the country's leadership on August 4, 1959 to issue a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On the closure of the city of Gorky for visiting by foreigners."

On June 22, 1941, at 3:30 in the morning, a massive and for many unexpected invasion of Nazi Germany troops into the territory of the Soviet Union began.
All the nations and peoples of the USSR rose up voluntarily or by way of mobilization to defend their Fatherland. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, together with the entire Soviet people, more than 600 thousand Gorky residents stood up to defend their homeland. Many of them died the death of the brave. More than 310 Gorky residents were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union for their feats of arms, and pilots V.G. Ryazanov and A.V. Vorozheikin was awarded this title twice. More than 300 thousand Gorky residents were awarded military orders and medals for courage and courage on the war fronts.
The news of the perfidious attack on our Motherland raised the whole country and awakened an unprecedented patriotic upsurge of the entire people. On the first day of the war alone, the military registration and enlistment offices of the Gorky region received 10 thousand applications with a request to be sent to the front in the ranks of the army in the field. The motives of the defenders were different: someone fought for socialism, someone for the Fatherland, someone for both, but they all fought for themselves, for their relatives and friends, for the opportunity to live and work in peace.
The city of Gorky, as a major industrial center of the country, came to the attention of the aggressor during the period when he was developing a plan to defeat our country, known under the code name "Plan Barbarossa". This plan provided for three main stages of military operations:
1) the defeat of our army in border battles and the capture of the Baltic states and Leningrad;
2) mastery of Moscow and Donbass;
3) the exit of fascist troops to the Arkhangelsk-Volga line in the Kazan region and the suppression of centers in the Urals and Siberia with the help of aviation.
Gorky, therefore, was subject to direct capture at the beginning of the third, final stage of the Barbarossa plan. Hitler's strategists set aside from 9 to 17 weeks for the implementation of this plan. The assault on Moscow was supposed to begin on August 30, and its capture - in early September. Consequently, in the second half of September - early October 1941, the Germans planned to enter Gorky. In the "War Diary" of the Chief of the General Staff of the Nazi troops, Franz Halder, the city of Gorky is repeatedly mentioned. According to Halder's calculations, the capture of Ukraine, Leningrad and Moscow with Gorky deprived our country of three-quarters of its military potential, i.e. made further resistance pointless for us. On February 28, 1941, Halder made a report on which a decision was made, which he wrote down as follows: “Speed. No delays. Don't expect the railroads. Achieve everything using the motor. This idea was also the basis for the plan to capture Gorky: the enemy’s arrival to our city was planned along the roads leading to it from the west, along the Moscow highway and along the Gorky-Mur highway, built in 1940.
It is known that the course of hostilities, the mobilization of forces and resources, the feats of arms of our army led to the disruption of the enemy's plan. On October 23, 1941, the Gorky City Defense Committee (GGKO) was created - a local emergency leadership body under martial law. It united civil and military power in the city and region. The Committee led the mobilization of the population and material resources, allocated forces and funds for the formation of military units, firefighting and sanitary squads, organized air and chemical defense, restored enterprises and houses destroyed during enemy bombing, and helped the population affected by raids. The construction of defensive lines was a special concern of the GGKO. Construction work was carried out almost exclusively by the local civilian population of cities and regions, mobilized in the order of labor service. It was also allowed to mobilize students of all universities, senior students of technical schools and students of grades 9-10 of secondary schools. The border was built by the entire region, over half a million people worked. For defensive lines, orders were carried out by 40 enterprises of the city and the region. The work took place mainly in the autumn and winter of 41-42, and it was very cold. The builders of defensive lines were attacked by enemy aircraft. Work continued throughout almost the entire 1942 until the victory in 1943 near Kursk, when the general situation on the fronts changed in our favor. Ground troops did not reach the Nizhny Novgorod land. But the sky also had to be protected.
The first raid on Gorky was on the night of November 4-5, 1941. Groups of Heinkel-111 and Junkers-88 bombers took part in it, up to 150 aircraft in total. Only 11 broke through to the city, the rest were not allowed by anti-aircraft artillery fire. However, those who broke through caused damage to the plants. Lenin, "Engine of the Revolution", automobile. It is characteristic that the enemy approached the automobile plant from less protected positions (the raid was preceded by a long reconnaissance). He also tried to bomb the Sormovo factories, but was not allowed to reach the target by means of air defense. During the massive raids on November 4, 5, and 6, 1941, 127 people were killed and 303 wounded. The enemy had high hopes for these major military operations. They were part of the general strategic plan to capture Moscow and defeat the Moscow grouping of Soviet troops. Therefore, the military operations of the Gorky air defense region at that moment represented direct and immediate support to the troops defending Moscow. On November 8, by order of the commander of the Moscow Air Defense Zone, General M. S. Gromadin, the Gorky Air Defense Brigade District with all units and headquarters was introduced into the Red Army. The most fierce fighting in the Gorky sky took on in June 1942. They coincided in time with the largest offensive operations of the Wehrmacht in the Stalingrad and Caucasus directions. In November 1942, the Neftegaz plant and residential areas were seriously damaged. During June 1943, the enemy continuously increased the number of aircraft, and this number reached 160 bombers in one raid. Reference from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense:
“In June 1943, 7 air raids were made on the city (on the night of June 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 22). In total, 655 enemy planes participated in the raids, of which about 100 broke into the car factory. Bombs were dropped on the city: high-explosive - 1631, incendiary - 33,934. In total, the city's air defense used up 170 thousand units of ammunition. 23 enemy planes shot down…”
During the Great Patriotic War, the Sormovsky district was the largest in our city in terms of the occupied territory, population, and the most powerful in terms of industrial potential.
One of the brightest heroic pages of our history is the construction of tanks at the oldest Russian shipbuilding plant Krasnoye Sormovo. By Decree of the State Defense Committee No. 1 of July 1, 1941, the Sormovo plant was supposed to organize the production of tanks as soon as possible. It was necessary to transform the leading workshops, to expand production areas. The metallurgical production was reconstructed and expanded, an armored hull shop was built, a tank shop with machine molding was re-created. The machine shop was converted for the processing of towers and the production of armored hulls. A conveyor 150 meters long was assembled in 15 days. A delivery shop and a tank yard have been equipped. The first T-34 tank, assembled from imported equipment, left the test in September 1941. Already in October, 5 vehicles were manufactured. In March 1942 - 160 vehicles.
The production of tanks steadily increased, but the front demanded more and more combat vehicles.
In battle, the medium tank T-34 proved to be a machine that surpassed not only its class, but also many "heavy" types of vehicles. To counter the enemy "Tigers" and "Panthers", the T-34 tank needed a new long-range gun. Sormovo designers actively took up the modernization of the tank gun. By January 1944, the new gun had successfully passed all tests. Improved "thirty-fours" began to enter the troops in March, and from May 1, 1944, their mass production began.
In addition to the T-34, the plant also produced other types of tanks: a "commander" tank with a powerful radio station, a shielded T-74 tank with protection against shaped charges, a flamethrower tank with radar. In 1943-1944. design developments of the underwater tank were made.
In total, during the war years, the Krasnoye Sormovo plant gave the front more than 12 thousand combat vehicles.
An important and significant contribution to the creation of weapons of victory during the war years was the construction at the Krasnoe Sormovo plant of small-displacement submarines of the C series for the Baltic and northern theater of operations. The first submarine "Komsomolets" was built in 1930. And for 1941-45. Sormovichi released more than fifty small boats.
On the basis of the plant, tank units and brigades were formed and sent to the front. A people's militia, self-defense detachments, sanitary squads, detachments for the restoration of military facilities that had suffered from enemy air raids were created. Shock shifts were held at the plant, a movement of front-line brigades appeared, working 14-16 hours a day. Already in the first days of the war, a concrete expression of the creative initiative of the Gorky residents was the movement of the two hundred: "to work not only for themselves, but also for a comrade who has gone to the front." At the end of 1941, hundreds of workers began to fulfill two or more norms.
In December 1942, work began on the construction of a branch of one of the Dzerzhinsky factories in Sormov. In the shortest possible time, the release of shells for the Katyushas was launched. On August 26, 1943, the branch was given the status of an independent enterprise - the Elektromash plant.
From the first days of the war, the working people of the Gorky districts mobilized all their forces to help the front.
Plant No. 215 (named after Petrovsky), evacuated from Kiev at the end of 1941, entered service two months later and uninterruptedly supplied the front with ammunition and weapons. From the first days of the war, all light industry enterprises were also transferred to the production of uniforms and equipment for the Red Army. Only in the navigation of 1941, the workers of the Upper Volga Shipping Company transported 613 thousand evacuated people, more than 135 thousand tons of equipment and property, and a lot of military cargo. During the war years, nine higher educational institutions of the Nizhny Novgorod region continued to train specialists, including intensified training in new specialties that were important for the military industry. A significant part of scientific research was of defense and national economic importance and was introduced into production. The performances of the artists, which included patriotic and anti-fascist works, supported in the fighters, the population of the city and the region, love for the Fatherland, faith in victory over the enemy. Artists of the Gorky theaters did a lot of military patronage work at the front, in hospitals.
A military-political school was stationed in the Prioksky district, which trained military political officers.
Plant No. 558 (“Start”) in the Sovetsky District was organized on the basis of a former distillery and went into operation in March 1942. The young work team, overwhelmingly consisting of former housewives and teenagers, mastered the production of military products for the front - mine devices KV-4 and already in 1942 completed the production program by 116%. The staff of factory No. 5 also worked hard, producing 20 types of products, including repair and aircraft tents, insulated tents for command personnel, a cargo parachute for aircraft, raincoats. By 1945, the workers of the meat-packing plant increased the volume of production by 57% compared to 1942, mastered new types of products needed by the front and rear. On the basis of its raw materials and waste, the plant produced valuable medical preparations (for example, hematogen), consumer goods (short coats, sheepskins, etc.)
In the early 40s. on the territory of the Avtozavodsky district, in addition to the automobile plant, there was a large aircraft plant No. 466, OSMC (special construction and installation part) of Stroygaz No. 2. The auto plant produced cars, light tanks T-60, T-70, tank engines, self-propelled guns, armored vehicles, mortars, ammunition, components for T-34 tanks, shells for rocket launchers, and other military products. From June 4 to June 22, 1943, the plant was subjected to massive enemy air raids 25 times. As a result of the bombing, 50 buildings and structures of the enterprise were destroyed or damaged; disabled 5900 units. technological equipment, more than 9 thousand m of conveyors and conveyors. But what the Nazis destroyed at night, people restored during the day. The workshops stood without roofs, but they were already giving out products. Production did not stop for a single day.
By the beginning of the war, there were more than 10 large enterprises on the territory of the Kanavinsky district. The plant "Krasny galvanizer" became a branch of the aviation plant. Here they began to produce components for aircraft and other parts for military equipment. During the war years, the Gorky Metallurgical Plant produced several thousand tons of valuable alloys. The production of sapper shovels and scissors - wire cutters for cutting wire obstacles was organized. Dozens of divisions and corps were supplied with saws, hacksaws and other tools made at the factory. "Red Anchor" switched to the production of ammunition and stowage devices for mountain artillery, pontoon anchors for engineering troops, etc. Plant them. Popova produced over 7 thousand dump trucks, more than 10 thousand buses - staff and sanitary, over 25 thousand camp kitchens and many other military products. The team of the oil and fat plant named after Kirov, along with the main products, organized the production of "NA" powder, which was used to prepare powder for Molotov cocktails. In 1941, a workshop was built and the production of dynamite, chemically pure glycerin, as well as a special product for military factories manufacturing military equipment, was organized. The uninterrupted operation of railway transport was of great importance.
Evacuated enterprises from Belarus, Ukraine, and western cities of Russia worked in the Leninsky district.
In the extreme conditions of unprecedented confrontation, the front demanded in ever-increasing quantities military equipment, weapons, ammunition, equipment, agricultural products, and human resources.
Hundreds of aircraft, tanks, cannons and many other military equipment were additionally built at the personal expense of the Gorky residents. There were not enough personnel, equipment, raw materials, experience, knowledge ... But a sense of duty, faith in victory helped to do the truly impossible.
A striking manifestation of the unity of the army and the people was the donor movement. In 1943, in our region, compared with the pre-war period, the number of donors increased 5 times and amounted to a huge army of 50 thousand people. During the war years, the Gorky blood transfusion station sent 92,202 liters of blood to the front. In addition, 17,127 liters of blood were sent directly to hospitals in the Gorky region.
In the common great victory there is a significant contribution of the Gorky people, who were reduced to the extreme degree of poverty, but did not lose their industriousness. Most of them are now dead. Many died prematurely - the difficult war years, incredible labor stress, poor food and countless hardships affected. And I must say that these heroes of the home front did not consider themselves "heroes", they simply fulfilled their duty to the Motherland. A vivid confirmation of this is the unshakable memory preserved in the documents of the State Archive of Special Documentation of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
The documents of the Gorky State Agricultural Experimental Station for the years 1935-1996 are on state registration and storage, which can tell us a lot.
In wartime, the requirements for the selection and seed-growing work of the station and its scientific and production assistance to land authorities in organizing work on seed production of grain crops and grasses on collective farms increased immeasurably. The situation in agriculture was complicated. The peasantry made up the majority of the population, and it was subject to almost "clean" mobilization. In the first war year alone, 300,000 people were drafted from the collective farms into the Red Army. The main burden of agricultural work fell on the shoulders of women, the elderly, and children. Part of the agricultural workers went to work in the defense industry, and many teenagers were mobilized in vocational schools and FZU schools. The front took more than a thousand tractors and cars, the number of horses on the collective farms was reduced by 2.5 times. However, it was necessary to get out of the situation. In the summer and autumn of 1941, the country's leadership adopted a number of resolutions aimed at ensuring agricultural work. Tough administrative pressure on the one hand and patriotism on the other have done their job. In 1941 the region harvested 7 million poods more grain than in previous years. With a lack of equipment, draft power, materials and skilled labor, the most complete and economical use of the means of production was required. Massive land reclamation work was carried out, stumps were uprooted, bushes were cut down, drainage channels were created in order to free up plots of land suitable for sowing. As a result, in 1942, the sown areas of collective farms under grain, potatoes, vegetables and flax in the region were increased by 155,831 hectares.
In 1942, the situation at the front deteriorated sharply. The loss of the south of the country, which before the war provided 30% of grain, had to be replenished at the expense of Siberia and the European Non-Black Earth Region. The development of the issue of increasing the yield of field, vegetable and fruit and berry crops in peacetime is carried out by means of long-term crop rotation experiments. Experienced crop rotations in most cases need to be repeated 3-4 times. One can imagine what the employees of the field station experienced when faced with the task of significantly changing agricultural production overnight. And, probably, only selfless love for the Motherland, the desire to protect the honor and independence of the Fatherland with all their might, helped to do the impossible: in the shortest possible time, not only to develop, but also to implement, the most important and necessary measures that increase the yield of field, vegetable and fruit berry crops. For example, the widespread introduction of such an agro-industrial technique as "wide-row crops of grain crops" into agricultural production in the Gorky region led to a high yield of sown areas, the crops of which developed so powerfully that they compensated for the missing plants per unit area, had a powerful ear and rather large grain. This method of sowing grain is used to this day.
Along with grain, in the Gorky region for the first time the question arises of the large-scale production of other crops.
And again, thanks to the unshakable faith in the Victory in the conditions of the Gorky region (on gray forest-steppe and degraded chernozem soils), they grow a crop of 15-24 centners per hectare of oilseed sunflower.
The introduction of sugar beets into production was also new for the region. In wartime, local scientific agricultural institutions were faced with the task of developing the correct methods of its cultivation in relation to various local natural conditions. From 1941 to 1946, the regional field station on its experimental base, together with the Baryshevsky and Arzamas strongholds, did a lot of work on the study of sugar beet agricultural technology. On the basis of the data obtained, the station was able to offer the production of an agro-complex of methods that make it possible to obtain crops in the conditions of the region up to 400 centners per hectare with an average sugar content of 18%.
The station staff also worked tirelessly on other agrotechnical developments. For example, such issues as: cultivation and cultivation of vegetable crops, watermelons, melons, Arzamas onions were studied. The main issue was the study of methods for obtaining early vegetables from open ground.
It was not without difficulties. Severe winters and rainy summers led to the complete destruction of crops, which were already sorely lacking. Ultimately, everything depended on the people who needed the Victory.
The employees of the station and the peasants of our region did everything in their power and more than that. In every scientific report, it is mentioned that, in the absence of special seeders, crops were made by hand. The labor of women and adolescents became predominant in the villages. The sown area increased intensively due to uprooting and melioration. Women and teenagers sometimes had to plow on themselves.
The village worked with super-dedication, unthinkable in peacetime. They left for spring field work at 3 o'clock in the morning, on areas with a norm of 0.35 hectares they plowed up to 1 hectare. People worked for workdays, which were then exchanged for meager rations of grain. Many began to forget the taste of real bread, mostly potatoes rescued. By a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of August 20, 1941, cards for bread, sugar and confectionery products were introduced in 44 cities of the region, workers' settlements and urban-type settlements. Supply cuts were not uncommon...
A participant in those events, V.A. Tikhonova recalls:
“In the difficult years of the war, we had to eat what we had: nettles, sorrel, roots, small pine cones, having cleaned them of needles, they baked pancakes from rotten frozen potatoes. In the summer, little half-starved children went to cut stumps, tied them with a rope and carried them on their shoulders, bending under an overwhelming burden, and in winter they chopped dry branches on trees, laid them on sleds and drove 5 km, with difficulty making their way through the snowdrifts. It was not easy for everyone during these years. Neighbors cooked soup in a samovar, saving firewood. There were bread cards for everyone, and every day you had to stand in long lines for bread. One day, after standing in line for several hours, I go up to the scales and discover with horror that instead of a bag I have in my hands the handles from the bag that was cut off, and there are bread cards for the whole month. And our family was forced to live without bread for the whole month, sitting on one potato "...
Lack of sleep, malnutrition, at the limit of strength during the war years, the collective farms of the Gorky region gave the country and the front 68 poods of grain, 50 million poods of potatoes, 14 million poods of vegetables, 4 million poods of meat, 14 million poods of milk. In the Gorky region, during the war years, their own tobacco factory, 8 starch factories, 10 mills, 9 syrup-making stations, 19 soap-making and 12 vegetable-drying shops were created. The production of dextrin, lactic acid, saccharin, yeast, sago, maltose syrup, canned vegetables, concentrates, vitamin C has been mastered; large pickling and pickling stations for the processing of vegetables and mushrooms were organized, and salt mining began in the Sergach and Balakhna districts. During the war years, departments of workers' supply were created at most enterprises in the region. A significant addition to the table of workers and employees was given by collective and individual gardening. Potatoes were also planted on lawns.
But people endured everything: the death of loved ones, malnutrition, physical and moral overload, and many other hardships. Especially worthy of glorification are women who carried the main hardships of the war years on their shoulders.
Before leaving for the front, the combine operator of the Arzamas MTS Tuzov taught his wife his profession. At the call of Anna Tuzova, thousands of women got behind the wheel of a tractor, replacing the tractor drivers who had gone to the front.
In 1979, the local press published the memoirs of Nina Elistratovna Rechkina in the essay “Show us to the outskirts”. “I got behind the wheel of a tractor in 1943. There was a war, and there were no men left on the collective farm, and the front demanded bread. They worked from dark to dark. There is no shift - you work as long as you have enough strength. There is no one to help the seeds fall asleep, you yourself take up the bag. Somehow they sowed together with a girl all day, and then there was no strength to get to the house. Well, I crawled. Somewhere near the village they picked it up without a memory, rested a bit and again in the field, sow. And the tractors of that time were without cabs. The rain is wet, the wind is blowing, the sun is scorching. One day the wolf approached the tractor itself. Well, I think it will! No, I was scared." Nina Elistratovna Rechkina was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor During the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945."
There are fewer and fewer participants and witnesses of those distant events, there is no one to tell about those days that forever changed the course of history, so their memories, documents, correspondence are very important ...
Here is one of the memoirs of a student of the Gorky Industrial Institute Zoya Vasilievna Urezkova, now deceased, recorded from her words by her grandson, Kosse V.O., candidate of philosophical sciences, teacher of the department of philosophy and political science of the Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in 2000 and published in the materials Interregional scientific and practical conference "Gorky region during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945: history and modernity".
“I graduated from school in 1941 with a gold medal, on June 18 there was a graduation party, and on June 22 the war began. In July, I was summoned to the Sverdlovsk District Committee of the Komsomol and sent to work as a pioneer leader in a pioneer camp in the village. Fokino, Vorotynsky district. The pioneers took part in harvesting, harvested rye with sickles, and picked berries in the collective farm garden. We worked in the field every day. I encountered my first wound on the labor front and first aid skills when a pioneer accidentally cut his leg with a sickle.
In August, I entered the Industrial Institute at the faculty of aircraft engine building. And there was a shortage at the Faculty of Chemistry, and the most conscious Komsomol members were summoned to the Komsomol Committee of the Institute and asked to transfer to the Faculty of Chemistry, because. for the country it was necessary to develop the chemical industry. I switched to the Faculty of Chemistry and graduated from the institute in 1946. 120 people entered the institute with me, and only 6 graduated from the institute in my specialty (technology of inorganic substances). Many went to the front or were sent to study at military schools according to the Komsomol recruitment.
It was hard to study; we worked on the construction of defensive structures, and on the development of peat, looked after the wounded in hospitals. In winter, there was no heating at the institute, we wrote lectures in mittens. In October 1941, at the beginning of the first academic semester, we, students and teachers, were sent to dig trenches on the left bank of the Volga, near the village of Selishche. At this time, Gorky was bombed, and a glow was visible. In December 1941 we were building fortifications in the Pavlov area. They lived in the village of Sannitsy on the other side of the Oka. In a 40-degree frost, they walked across the ice across the river to the village of Bolshaya Tarka, where they built defensive structures, made pits for explosives in the ground. Yury Nikolaevich Korotkikh, a lecturer in higher mathematics at the industrial institute, worked with us. On his jacket was always tied a ribbon diagonally with the inscription: "Everything for victory!" From May to October 1942, we worked in the village of Bolshoe Pikino, Bor District, in peat extraction. They uprooted, sawed, cut down trees, prepared plots for peat. Production norms were set for each day, and in order to fulfill them, it was necessary to work from morning to evening. The trees stood in the swamp, and there were no rubber boots at that time, many were sick, but it was impossible to refuse work - this was equated with desertion at the front. At the peat extraction, I also encountered the first victims: one girl was crushed by a felled tree. I had first aid skills and was chosen as a medical instructor. I was the only one at the peat excavations who served all the brigades, I ran on calls over swamp bumps with a sanitary bag. The distances between the teams were several hundred meters, and the call to the victim was passed along the chain. Wounded mostly with axes. In the summer of 1943, the students again went to peat extraction in Balakhna at the Chernoramen peat enterprise. They dried peat, in the morning they laid out peat cut into bricks on the field and built towers from it. In the evening the towers were sorted out. The summer was hot and the peat dried well. We worked all day under the scorching sun. Medical students worked next to us. There were many people on the field, all the women from the nearest villages also worked on drying peat. In 1944 we helped build the Chkalov Stairs. German prisoners were working next to us, but they were under escort.
At the institute, students were engaged in military and sports training, studied military affairs. We did a lot of skiing, shooting at a shooting range. Some students worked in the laboratory of inorganic substances, under the guidance of Assoc. Andreev made Molotov cocktails for the front. We also helped the front by organizing the collection of warm clothes for the front, knitting mittens, socks, embroidering pouches. In 1943, especially many wounded appeared in the Gorky hospitals. Together with other girls from the institute, I worked in hospitals. We helped unload the wounded, carried them on stretchers, fed them, distributed medicines, read to them and helped them write letters, organized amateur art concerts. In the morning we studied at the institute, then went to the hospital, left the hospital late in the evening. In 1943, many evacuees from besieged Leningrad arrived in the city. The district committee of the Komsomol helped them with employment ... "
It is impossible not to mention the fraternal assistance to the regions and republics that suffered from the fascist occupation. The working people of the oblasts took patronage over the liberated oblasts, rendered them all-round support in restoring the national economy, provided them with machinery, agricultural machinery, livestock, seeds, and so on.
The workers of the Gorky region, at a time when they themselves were in dire need of the most necessary, transferred to the areas liberated from the enemy, in order to provide assistance, 250 tractors, 100 tractor seeders, 35.5 thousand heads of cattle, 31 thousand heads of sheep and goats and 6.5 thousand horses.
Throughout the war, the front and rear were a single combat camp. After all, the outcome of the war with the fascist aggressors was decided not only on the battlefields, but also in the rear.

The volleys of the Great Battle have long since died down. On the site of ashes, ruins and ruins, new cities and villages were built. Boys and girls who were born on May 9, 1945 already have grandchildren themselves. We already get knowledge about the Great Patriotic War from documents, books, films ...
The people's feat, which the Gorky people accomplished with all our people during the Great Patriotic War, will forever remain in grateful memory!
Fighting, working, showing courage and heroism ...
We, contemporaries, can only be proud of our countrymen, learn from them to work tirelessly, far from being in the best conditions, without losing our spirit and self-confidence. And most importantly - love your homeland!

LITERATURE CIF GU GASDNO:

Book of memory Nizhny Novgorod. T I: Avtozavodsky, Kanavinsky, Leninsky, Moskovsky districts. - Nizhny Novgorod: GIPP "Nizhpoligraf", 1994, - p.10-21, 27 - 28, 225- - 226, 392 - 393, 562 - 563.
Book of memory Nizhny Novgorod. T II: Nizhny Novgorod, Prioksky, Sovetsky, Sormovsky districts. - Nizhny Novgorod: GIPP "Nizhpoligraf", 1994, - pp. 9 - 10, 232 - 233, 295 - 296, 490 - 492.
Gorky region during the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945: history and modernity: Proceedings of the interregional scientific and practical conference dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, April 6-7, 2005. Part II / Comp. A.P. Arefiev, A.A. Kulakov, G.V. Serebryanskaya. - Nizhny Novgorod: Committee for the Archives of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, 2005 - p. 201 - 203, 211.
Monuments of labor glory of the Soviet people. Abstracts of reports for the regional scientific and methodological conference. / Edited by I. A. Kiryanov // Gorky, 1979, - p. 12, 14 - 15, 17, 26 - 27, 43.
Monuments of the Great Patriotic War, their protection and use in the military-patriotic education of workers. Abstracts for the scientific-practical conference. / Edited by I. A. Kiryanov // Gorky, 1984, - p. 18, 20, 21, 24, 26, 45

Very soon we will once again celebrate the most important holiday for our country - Victory Day. The St. George Ribbon campaign has already started, and on the day of the celebration we will see the Victory Parade and the traditional Immortal Regiment campaign will take place. How our city lived in these difficult days and what contribution the Gorky people made to the Victory.

The beginning of the war and the bombing of Gorky

Gorky residents learned about the beginning of the war on June 22, 1941, a few hours after the enemy's invasion. First on the radio, then from the Gorky Commune newspaper. On Sovetskaya Square (now Minin and Pozharsky Square) a rally of many thousands took place, at which the secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Ivan Mikhailovich Guryev, spoke to the audience. Crowded rallies and meetings swept like a wave throughout the region. Mobilization was announced the next day, but only on the 22nd, on the first day of the war, about 10 thousand people throughout the region, without waiting for summons from the military registration and enlistment offices, applied to join the army.

Of course, we all know that the front line did not pass through the city and no hostilities were conducted, but the city of Gorky deserves the title of "city - hero of labor", because here every second car, every third tank and every fourth artillery installation was created for the needs of the front.

Of course, one should not forget about the bombing of the main industries and industrial areas of the city by German aircraft. The main purpose of the bombing in the period from autumn 1941 to summer 1943 was the destruction of the industrial potential of the city, the Gorky Automobile Plant received the most damage. During the war, enemy bombers made 43 raids, 26 of which were at night, during which 33,934 incendiary bombs and 1,631 high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city. Gorky's bombings became the largest air strikes of the Luftwaffe on the rear areas of the USSR during the war years.

The city came to the attention of the Germans even during the development of Operation Barbarossa to defeat the USSR. He was then one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of weapons to the Red Army. The complete capture of Gorky and its transfer under its control was planned by Nazi Germany in the second half of September 1941. First, the Nazis had to destroy the city's defense industry - the Gorky Automobile Plant, the Lenin Plant, as well as the Sokol, Krasnoye Sormovo and Engine Revolution factories. The Gorky Machine-Building Plant was planned to be re-equipped for the production of German military equipment.

On October 31, 1941, I.V. Stalin's order came to the automobile plant that it was necessary to sharply increase the production of T-60 light tanks and bring it up to 10 tanks a day in the next 2-3 days. And after 5 days, on the night of November 4-5, 1941, the first enemy air raid on the city was made. Groups of Heinkel-111 and Junkers-88 bombers took part in it, up to 150 aircraft in total. Of this number, 11 aircraft broke through to the city.

It was a chilly and overcast November night. Stretched out on the banks of the Oka and immersed in darkness, Gorky lived the daily life of a rear city. Tens of thousands of residents slept in their unheated houses and barracks, while others worked in the many cold shops of military factories. Their gloomy gray hulls, with boarded and plywood windows, stood out dimly against the monotonous landscape. People were in alarm - the enemy is standing near Moscow.

Air bombing: how it was

A German bomber was approaching Gorky from the southwest at a low altitude. The crew of the Heinkel was in suspense. The navigator carefully peered into the clearly distinguishable silhouette of the Oka, anticipating that the contours of the rear city hidden in the darkness were about to appear. On the port side flashed the gloomy outlines of the chemical plants of Dzerzhinsk. This meant that the target was about 20 km away. And now, on the left bank, numerous spots of residential areas appeared, and then the dark mass of an automobile plant with dozens of chimneys ...

The clock was 01.40 November 4 local time, when three powerful explosions rocked the GAZ. One bomb fell into the engine shop No. 2 on the line of crankshafts, the second exploded outside, another landmine landed in the corner of the opposite wheel shop, where the electrode section and the garage were located. Further, the plant turned into a disturbed anthill. And above the engine shop, the flames flared up more and more, ominously illuminating neighboring buildings. The authorities rushed to the phones in order to quickly report the bombing to the regional committee.

In the meantime, a second bomber was approaching the city from the southwest, which, due to cloudy weather, again went unnoticed by the VNOS posts. At 02.15 "Heinkel" reached the target, which was already clearly indicated by the bright flames of the fire. The German pilot aimed at the new body building, where T-60 light tanks were assembled. When the dark gray bulk of the building appeared in the crosshairs of the sight, the navigator pressed the reset button and two 500-kg bombs rushed down with a howl. However, this time the calculation turned out to be wrong. One bomb fell undershot, and the second overshot, already at the tram stop behind the plant. A powerful blast wave shattered windows in the wheel shop, spare parts department, KEO and other buildings. The roar of the explosions was heard at a great distance, and many residents of the city, waking up, ran out into the street, where their eyes saw the bright glow of a fire at an automobile plant. It became clear to everyone that the war had really come to Gorky.

At 16.40 another Heinkel appeared. The bomber came from a southerly direction, from the direction of the village of Ankudinovka, and flew low over the railway. The twin-engine colossus roared over Myza station. Some residents even managed to see a huge bomb suspended under the fuselage. Suddenly emerging from behind a mountainous coast, the plane flew over the Oka River and from a gentle dive dropped a "cargo" onto the Engine of the Revolution plant. The strongest explosion thundered in the building of the power station of the enterprise, in which there were steam boilers, diesel, compressor and transformer substations. Workers who were in neighboring workshops fell to the floor from the concussion, then a real rain fell down on them from fragments of glass of skylights.

The bomber, meanwhile, flew to the center of Gorky, inspecting local attractions. Over the Kremlin, he made a "lap of honor" and then disappeared. Unfortunately, on that day, the Kremlin defenses were not yet ready. An employee of the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Anna Alexandrovna Korobova, after that, recalled: “During a break between meetings, we went outside and to our horror saw a black plane with a swastika, describing a circle over the Kremlin. At the same time, the pilot leaned out of the cockpit and even waved to us! After that, we returned to the building and were informed that they had just bombed the plant. Lenin, its director Kuzmin died ... "

After the first bombardments, urgent measures were taken to transfer additional anti-aircraft guns and ammunition to the automobile plant area, communications and the fire control system were improved. Changed the scheme of barrage fire. Two lines of curtains were created in the directions of German aviation operations at a distance of 2-3 and 6-7 kilometers from the car factory, machine guns were installed on the roofs of the workshops for firing at low-flying aircraft. Subsequent raids met in a more organized way, on the way to Gorky. A total of 14 aircraft were shot down, of which 8 by anti-aircraft batteries, 6 by fighters (according to other sources, 23 were shot down, about 210 were damaged).

The next massive raids took place in February 1942, as a result of these bombings 20 people were killed and 48 were injured, the damage to industrial facilities was insignificant. Then the bombing raids went on in June. At that time, the Germans began to raid other cities in the Volga region. The air defense forces were then significantly strengthened. The gunboats of the Volga flotilla were allocated for the defense of bridges, ships and piers. Since that time, air barrier balloons have been used.

Continued bombing in 1943 and restoration of the car factory

In June 1943, after a long lull, Gorky, especially the car factory, was subjected to a series of massive night raids by German aircraft. The raids were carried out in preparation for a major offensive operation in the summer-autumn of 1943, during which bombings were carried out on the industrial centers of the Volga region - Yaroslavl, Gorky, Saratov.

Despite the active interest of the Abwehr (body of military intelligence and counterintelligence of Germany - approx. ed.) in 1919-1944 to the Gorky defense industry, yet the German command did not have absolutely accurate information about our military plants. They considered GAZ the main plant of Soviet tank products, which produces 800 T-34 tanks every week. That is why the task was set on the eve of the Battle of Kursk to wipe the car factory off the face of the earth. They bombed with German precision: in an organized manner, according to the same scheme, at the same time of day, along the same route. Every evening, the residents of Gorky watched with fear as the hands of the clock approached midnight.

They flew in from day to day in batches of 150-200 aircraft, starting from 00.00 and until 3 in the morning. Dropped lighting fixtures on parachutes and bombed. It was bright as day. The factory, workshops, buildings were on fire. Bombs exploded here and there. The main cargo conveyor was destroyed to the ground.

But, people, hungry, exhausted, poorly dressed, created a miracle, and within one month they restored everything. Restoration work began already during the bombing and continued at an increasing pace. Construction and installation teams were involved from Moscow, the Urals, Siberia, and Central Asia. The total number of employees reached 35 thousand. First of all, the wheel shop was launched. And the machines needed by the front again began to roll off the assembly line. October 28, 1943 is considered the official date for the restoration of the Gorky Automobile Plant, on this day a report was sent to I.V. Stalin, which was signed by 27 thousand builders.

For the early liquidation of the consequences of enemy air raids, for the successful fulfillment of the tasks of the State Defense Committee for mastering the production of new types of combat vehicles and weapons, for the improvement of military equipment and the exemplary supply of military products to the front, the plant was awarded the second order on March 9, 1944 - the Order of the Red Banner. More than 500 workers, engineers, technicians were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union.