Dmitry Nikolaevich Golosov. "major general of voices dmitry nikolaevich" What feats did voices dn

Born on September 20, 1903. Major General, commander of the 280th Konotop Infantry Division of the 60th Army of the Central Front.
Half of his life Dmitry Nikolaevich Golosov was in military service. He devoted his best years to serving the Motherland, having gone a long way from an ordinary soldier to a corps commander, a general. Dmitry Nikolaevich is a hereditary Volzhan. His homeland is the village of Russkaya Borkovka, Stavropol District, Kuibyshev Region. In the Volga expanses, he grew and matured, tempered his will and character. In 1925, the village boy was drafted into the Red Army. From the first days of the service, Voices showed conscientiousness and diligence. He was enrolled in a regimental school, after which he became a squad leader, and soon - an assistant platoon commander. I had to serve on the Volga. When the deadline for demobilization came, the young officer decided to stay in the army and devote his life to defending the Motherland. He successfully graduated from the Ulyanovsk Infantry School, was appointed platoon commander. The platoon entrusted to him immediately became one of the best in the unit. Dmitry Nikolaevich was promoted in rank, he was entrusted with the command of a company, a battalion. The Patriotic War found him in the position of commander of a rifle regiment in the area of ​​the town of Skuliany (Moldavia), 50 kilometers north of the city of Yassy, ​​on the Prut river bordering Romania. For about two weeks, Golosov's regiment held the border line from numerous attacks by enemy infantry. Then the soldiers had to fight heavy defensive battles in the south of Ukraine and retreat to the Donbass. Golosov's infantrymen traveled almost a thousand kilometers from the border posts to the center of Donbass. The enemy then had great superiority in manpower and equipment. Our soldiers had to repel attacks not only from the front, but often from the flanks, and sometimes from the rear - to break apart the enemy's encirclement. It was important for the commander to rally the commanding staff of the unit, to raise the morale of the soldiers, to take care of equipment and weapons, food and medicine. And Lieutenant Colonel Golosov successfully solved all these problems. Its part repeatedly went out on its own and rescued neighboring units from the seemingly most hopeless situations. Defending themselves, the infantrymen at a convenient moment themselves counterattacked and inflicted sensitive blows on the enemy. So near Horlivka they completely defeated the battalion of the Italian expeditionary corps, which had wedged into our battle formations.
At the end of 1941, Dmitry Nikolaevich was instructed to form a division. He completed this important task quickly and efficiently. The following spring, Colonel Golosov's division was already on the Bryansk front and occupied defensive positions in the area of ​​the Russkiy Brod railway station on the Orel-Livny line, reliably covering the road to Yelets. At the end of 1942, the division took part in breaking through the German defensive fortifications in the Livny region and in offensive operations near Kursk. The infantrymen especially distinguished themselves in the battles for the Kosorzha railway station, where the Nazis were defeated, and our troops got large trophies.
Then Golosov's regiments took part in the liberation of Kursk, and after the formation of the famous Kursk Bulge in this area, they took up combat positions in one of the most important sectors of the Oryol-Kursk direction as part of the troops of the Central Front. Golosov, like other commanders, well understood that the Hitlerite command would undertake a large offensive here, therefore, on his instructions, a deeply echeloned defensive line was created. The division commander made sure that literally every soldier knew what to do if the Germans went over to a counterattack. Thanks to well-organized reconnaissance, the division command knew almost everything about the location of the enemy's main forces and their numbers, even about his immediate plans, so the Germans' transition to the offensive on July 5, 1943 did not take our units by surprise. In fierce battles with the enemy, armed with the latest technology, our army ground his selected formations, and then itself launched a powerful offensive. Golosov's division, having received replenishment, was transferred to the very center of the Kursk Bulge, to the troops of the 60th Army of General I.D. Chernyakhovsky, who solved special problems.
In cooperation with other formations, the Golosists liberated the city of Konotop on September 6, for which the division received the honorary name of Konotop. Soon, with their active participation, the city of Bakhmach was liberated. For excellent military operations during the liberation of the city of Nezhin, by the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the unit was presented to be awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Breaking open the defensive lines of the Nazis, destroying their equipment, parts of the division swiftly reached the Desna River in the area of ​​the city of Oster and crossed it on the move. Pursuing the enemy, the regiments reached the Dnieper. The divisional commander ordered to immediately begin preparations for the crossing. The unit hosted flying Komsomol meetings with the agenda “On the role of Komsomol members in crossing the Dnieper”. The resolution was short: "We are forcing the Dnieper, we will seize the bridgehead, the life of a Komsomol member is only on the other side." By order of General Golosov, with the help of the local population, logs, boards, yards were delivered to the shore. During the night, several Komsomol groups crossed the Dnieper using improvised means. For 15 days, or rather a day, the fierce struggle for the expansion of the bridgehead on the right bank of the river continued, which did not subside either day or night. It was crowned with a bright victory for our soldiers under the command of General Golosov.
The combat report of the commander of the 77th Rifle Corps, General Kozlov, said: “Major General Golosov showed great skill, initiative and resourcefulness in the battles for crossing the Dnieper, as a result of which the units were the first to successfully cross the river, occupying favorable lines on its western bank. At the most crucial moments, Comrade Golosov was personally at the decisive sectors of the battle, inspiring soldiers and commanders to glorious deeds with his personal example of bravery and heroism. "
For participation in this historic battle, Dmitry Nikolaevich Golosov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After that, Major General Golosov commanded the storming of the city and a large railway junction Korosten, for which the division was awarded the Order of Suvorov 2nd degree, the battles for Zhitomir, the liberation of the city of Shepetovka. But soon Dmitry Nikolaevich became very ill and until May 1944 was in the hospital, and then was sent to study at the Military Academy. K.E. Voroshilov.
Dmitry Nikolaevich was awarded two Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov 2nd degree, Bogdan Khmelnitsky 2nd degree, Red Star. Dmitry Nikolaevich died on November 19, 1960. Streets, a school in Togliatti and in his homeland in the village of Tolyatti are named after the Hero. Russian Borkovka, Stavropol region.

Material source: http://www.citytlt.ru/podrazd/archive/book/

Borkovskiy division commander

"NS latsdarm ”in the Old City, where the streets named after the famous generals Golosov and Karbyshev were once established, the old residents still call the Third Village. I myself, I must admit, am confused by old memory. True, now it is less and less common.

TO street names are accustomed to as a given. And the name of the native of Russian Borkovka, Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Dmitry Golosov, about whom our story today, is one of those rare givens, to which one does not just get used to it, but accepts with the heart. Previously, veterans, bent by the weight of their memories, talked about such people with a light heart. Precisely with an easy one, because the biographies of people like Golosov did not require any embellishment, no "cuts" and omissions. Why, if the life he lived, judging by the recollections of his family that lay in time, was, though difficult, but bright and honest. The latter, probably, is especially valuable for our most cruel century, riddled with lies and omissions ...

From emero to the shops

T It was clear from the very beginning that Mitya Golosov would not become a darling of fate. Not from what - although it seems that the revolution promised such as he, a different life. The one for which the peasants of two Borkovki, Russian and Mordovian, tried to fight, dreaming of dividing the land of Count Orlov-Davydov. It was a good, fat land, already buried in our time by an automobile plant, an industrial zone and other buildings ...

E If you follow the chronicles, for the first time for unauthorized plowing, the Borkovites were mercilessly flogged exactly 100 years ago, in 1899. The second - in 1903, just in the year of the birth of the future Soviet general. “About 500 plows were used for unauthorized plowing,” we read in the historical and economic essay “The City of Togliatti” (1975). - The government carried out an even more terrible massacre than in 1899. Seventy people were mutilated, twenty-four of them died, including in the Stavropol prison. " In a word, there was a reason for the Borka plowmen not to love tsarism. That is why, as the old-timers recall, the local poor rushed into the first revolution to burn farms, barns with bread and "drag cattle in different directions."

H I don’t know how those events affected the Golosov family, in which, in addition to Dmitry, six of his brothers and sisters grew up, but they also had a hard time. The general's sister, Olga Nikolaevna, recalls that they were "miserable poor people - well, didn't they just beg." The head of the family, Nikolai Yakovlevich, earned his living by "driving the yamshchina" - he drove the local headman, who had two horses of his own. This is how we lived. Until in 1919 they did not lose their breadwinner at all: the father died of typhus, leaving the family for the eldest daughter Elizabeth.

"N you were raised by a sister, - said Olga Nikolaevna, who at that time was six years old. - Mitya was dying for this sister: if, he says, only offend Lizanka, then I will give you such a mandate ... She was a smart girl, she did not marry through us - and such suitors wooed her, it was painfully good, beautiful. She didn't go, didn't let us die. She married one brother twice, and he took the girl again - that's what we were clever, sonny ... "

Dmitry Nikolaevich was also a clever girl, according to his sister. They are proud of him in the family, of course. And rejoice at the high flight

Hero's kids

T swarm them from Golosov. The eldest, Nina, from 1926->, In 1934, Lucy was born. And in 1937 a son appeared. All three are alive. All retired, Nina Dmitrievna was married to a military man. Now he lives in Moscow. One: both husband and son died.
L We managed to find Yudmila Dmitrievna very close, in Zhigulevsk, in an old four-story building on Lenin Street. How they found it is another story. It seemed that everyone should know the daughter of a general and a hero - but nothing of the kind. “Even the neighbors don't know,” she explained. Local ethnographers do not know about its existence, the native Stavropol residents, who settled on the other side, do not know about it. It’s not surprising that they don’t know - it’s surprising that they don’t want to know ...

H She opened it when she heard the cherished: "General of Voices". Has come to life. She made me sit in armchairs. She took out a plush photo album. Here are Voices at the front, against the background of the "jeep", Here in a sanatorium in Arkhangelsk near Moscow, in "company" with a sphinx. But in the north, in Kem, where he remained to serve after the defeat of the Nazis and where he took his family ...

By the way, the Golosovs survived the war in our Stavropol: children, mother and grandmother, mother's mother, “I remember living opposite the people's court. They gave us an apartment there, ”said Lyudmila Dmitrievna. Nina was finishing 10th grade. It was especially engraved in the memory of how they met my father who returned from the war: how many people then came to the pier - they knew, they remembered Golosov ...

E The son of General Golosov, Vladimir Dmitrievich, is also in the photo. He also went along the military line: now he is already retired, and has long and firmly settled in Minsk. One family history is connected with him, which, in general, is not hidden. And what is so special about it - times do not choose. When the heir was born in 1937, his father named him Adolf, in honor of the then great "friend" and "ally" with whom Stalin intended to divide the world (I'm talking about the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop pact). So they wrote down in the metric: Adolf Golosov, So they called him, until, having already married, he was renamed Vladimir. One can imagine what the son of a glorious military general had to go through because of his father's "strategic" mistake. “During the war, my brother was teased all the time:" Hitler, Hitler. " He was still small then, ”recalls Lyudmila Dmitrievna.

AND From the Arctic Circle, Golosov was transferred to the command of the headquarters of the PrivO, sent to Saratov Volsk - to command a military school. The task was set - to put things in order: it is not a matter when the wives of officers, in order to feed their families, raise goats and sell milk on the pier under cover of night, this business has stopped. As they say, the general was strict. But it is fair. And to strangers, and to their own, For example, you do not have to go far. According to Olga Nikolaevna's sister, the teachers of the school were ordered to tear three skins from her son, his own cadet nephew. But the boy got out of it. A career officer Alexander Golosov fought in Afghanistan for four and a half years, served at the Kapustin Yar training ground. Like his uncle, he resigned as a major general ...

Have he has no peer friends left - count how much has passed since 1903. But, they say, they considered Mitya Golosov a tough person. They said that as a guy he was driving village hooligans around Borkovka - "he hated the bandits fiercely."

Have daughter Lyudmila her perception: "Dad was kind." Having settled in a Samara apartment - on Gorky Street, with windows overlooking the Volga - he took his granddaughter and raised him until his death in 1960. He called her in due time: after he fell in love with another woman and left his family. “Our mother is to blame for this,” the daughter thinks, fully justifying the “soft” father. She admits that she would gladly go to her father, if not for her mother, Alexandra Markelovna ...
A Lyudmila Dmitrievna named her son Dima, in honor of her grandfather. One can feel everything: the memory of her father firmly holds her on this earth. Moreover, children and grandchildren. For many years now, all the strength of this woman has been spent on the fight against severe hypertension. The disease is inherited, as she believes: "Daddy died from her." (Relatives recall that in Samara, where Golosov, already beaten by an illness, asked to be transferred at the end of his life - "I want to die in my homeland" - the former infantry general could not take a step without a stool.) And after the paralysis, Lyudmila Dmitrievna completely lost touch with the world : he barely moves around the apartment, let alone go out to the entrance. Maybe that's why they don't know her in Zhigulevsk. The general's daughter does not advertise, does not trump the name and merits of her father: "Dad did not encourage this."
NS The last time she saw her father was at the bedside of Aunt Lisa, who was dying in the Port Hospital.

And when he left, all that remained was to thank the kind people for not forgetting their father. Yes, and she is remembered at least occasionally. Just a quarter of a century ago, they took Golosov's daughter to the unveiling of the monument to Dmitry Nikolaevich. They were also invited to the school, which was named after the Pope. And they showed the street. Nice street.

A now she has one dream - to ask her son-in-law to take< ее в Борковку, к памятнику, Тетю Олю, у которой до самой смерти не было телефона, она так и не повидала.

With a hell of a dear star

V army Mitya was taken in 1926. I could have used the reservation (after all, the mother and younger sisters are in charge), but he judged differently. I went to the military registration and enlistment office myself. His path in the ranks of the invincible and legendary is spelled out quite clearly, although without details. “From the first days of his service in the army, Golosov showed conscientiousness and diligence,” we read in one of the volumes of the collection Feat in the Name of the Motherland (Kuibyshev, 1965). “He was enrolled in a regimental school, after which he became a squad leader, and soon an assistant platoon commander ...” The guy refused demobilization. Having joined the party and graduated from the Ulyanovsk infantry school, by the beginning of the war the promising red commander had risen to the rank of regiment commander.

V what pre-war campaigns the units commanded by Dmitry Nikolaevich participated, one can only guess. But in the so-called annexation of Bessarabia with Bukovina to Soviet Russia, apparently, he took part. And he stayed there until the "treacherous attack" of the Nazis. “The Patriotic War found a communist in the position of commander of a rifle regiment in the area of ​​the town of Skuliany, in Moldova, fifty kilometers north of the city of Yassy, ​​on the Prut River bordering Romania. For about two weeks, Golosov's regiment held the border line from numerous attacks by enemy infantry. Then the soldiers had to conduct heavy defensive battles in the south of Ukraine and retreat to the Donbass. "

NS on the testimony of the Kuibyshev biographers, on an almost thousand-kilometer mournful path, the regiment managed not only to get out of all the troubles (no losses were reported), but also to pretty much ruffle the enemy's ranks. As an example, the utterly defeated battalion of the Italian expeditionary corps near Horlivka is cited. During the retreat, Golosov proved to be a talented and resourceful commander - it was not for nothing that at the end of 1941 he was instructed to form and lead a division, which in the spring of 1942 was thrown into the Bryansk front, or rather, to defend the Russkiy Brod railway station on the Orel line. Livny. Then the division under the command of Golosov fought in one of the most intense sections of the Kursk Bulge - in the Oryol-Kursk direction as part of the troops of the Central Front. What difficult "tasks" our fellow countryman had to solve is also mentioned in "Podvig ..." Therefore, on his instructions, a deeply echeloned defensive line was created. " In fact, the general saved the division from complete defeat. After that, having received replenishment, she was thrown into the very center of the arc, at the disposal of the army of General Chernyakhovsky, which was solving special tasks, And although the name of Golosov did not enter the official history of the Battle of Kursk, published by Nauka in 1970, we already understand: time will put everything in its place.

V by the way, this is not what our general became famous for. It was not for this that he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. "Hero" Golosov was given for crossing the Dnieper. Having liberated the city of Konotop (it was for this that the divisions were given the honorary name of Konotop and Nizhyn (Order of the Red Banner), the Golosov division drove the Nazis to the Dnieper. Those who still remember the history of the war know what kind of crossing it was. a terrible shelling will take the line, which not every Gogol bird will cope with in peacetime, will certainly receive a Star. unattainable right bank ...

V the submission, signed by the commander of the 77th Rifle Corps, says: "Major General Golosov ... in the most crucial moments personally was on the decisive sectors of the battle, inspiring soldiers and commanders to glorious deeds with his personal example of bravery and heroism."

NS There were a lot of odvigs: it was not in vain that there are two Orders of Lenin in the “iconostasis” of Golosov, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov of the second degree and Bogdan Khmelnitsky. And medals. And "on load" - three wounds and two contusions. In May 1944, the general is hospitalized. From there - to the Voroshilov Academy. And again to the front, now to Karelsky - as a corps commander. Until the very victory ...

T So that Mitya Golosov “died” not only for his sister Lizaveta. He died for all of us.

Service in the ranks of the Red Army

Official version

"Gastellotsy"

Alternative version

Criticism of the alternative version

Myths about the feat of Gastello

Soviet military pilot, participant in three wars, commander of the 2nd Squadron of the 207th Long-Range Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 42nd Long-Range Bomber Aviation Division of the 3rd Long-Range Bomber Aviation Corps of the Long-Range Bomber Aviation of the Red Army Air Force, captain. Killed during a combat mission. Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously.

Biography

Was born in 1907 in Moscow.

Father - Franz Pavlovich Gastillo, Belarusian, originally from the village of Pluzhyny (now the Karelichi district of the Grodno region, Belarus); he came to Moscow to work in 1900, worked as a cupola operator in foundries on the Kazan railway.

Mother - Anastasia Semyonovna Kutuzova ( maiden name), Russian, seamstress.

In 1914-1918, Nikolai Gastello studied at the 3rd Sokolniki City Male School named after I. A.S. Pushkin. In 1918, due to hunger, he was evacuated to Bashkiria as part of a group of Muscovite schoolchildren. In 1919 he returned back to Moscow, where he again entered school. Nikolay Gastello began his labor activity in 1923, becoming a carpenter's apprentice. In 1924, the Gastello family moved to Murom, where Nikolai entered the Locomotive Plant named after V.I. F.E.Dzerzhinsky, where his father also worked. In parallel with work, N.F. Gastello graduated from school (now - school number 33)... In 1928 he joined the CPSU (b). In 1930, the Gastello family returned to Moscow, and Nikolai went to work at the First State Mechanical Plant of Construction Machines named after May 1st. In 1930-1932 N.F. Gastello lived in the village. Khlebnikovo.

Service in the ranks of the Red Army

• In May 1932 he was drafted into the Red Army by a special recruitment. Sent to study at the aviation school of pilots in Lugansk
• Studying at the XI Military Aviation Pilot School (May 1932 - December 1933)
• Service in the 82nd heavy bomber squadron of the 21st heavy bomber aviation brigade based in Rostov-on-Don (1933-1938). Having started flying as a right-hand pilot in a TB-3 bomber, N.F. Gastello piloted the plane on his own from November 1934

• In 1938, as a result of the reorganization of the unit, Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello ended up in the 1st Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment. In May 1939, he became flight commander, and a little over a year later - deputy squadron commander. In 1939 he took part in the battles at Khalkhin Gol as part of the 150th high-speed bomber aviation regiment, which was assigned a squadron of the 1st TBAP. Participated in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. and in the annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the USSR (June-July 1940). In the fall of 1940, the aviation unit was redeployed to the western borders, to the city of Velikiye Luki, and then to the Borovskoye air town near Smolensk. In 1940, N.F. Gastello was awarded the rank of captain.
• In the spring of 1941, Nikolai Gastello, having undergone appropriate retraining, mastered the DB-3f aircraft
• Commander of the 4th squadron of the 207th DBAP (May 24, 1941 - June 23, 1941)
• Commander of the 2nd squadron of the same unit (June 24 - 26, 1941). On June 24, the fire of a large-caliber machine gun from an aircraft standing at the airfield shot down a Junkers-88.

Doom

On June 26, 1941, in DB-3f, he bombed an enemy motor-convoy on the Molodechno-Radoshkovichi road. As a result of anti-aircraft artillery fire, the plane was shot down. Together with the commander of the ship N.F. Gastello, the crew members were killed: Lieutenant A. A. Burdenyuk, Lieutenant G. N. Skorobogaty, senior sergeant A. A. Kalinin. According to the official Soviet version, an enemy shell damaged the fuel tank, and Gastello committed fire ram- sent the burning car to the enemy mechanized column.

Awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, with the Golden Star badge and the Order of Lenin (1941, posthumously). Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 26, 1941

The feat of Gastello: versions and facts

Official version

On June 26, 1941, a flight under the command of Captain N.F. Gastello, consisting of two DB-3f heavy bombers, took off for a combat sortie to the Radoshkovichi - Molodechno area. The second plane was flown by Senior Lieutenant Fyodor Vorobyov, Lieutenant Anatoly Rybas flew with him as a navigator (the names of two more Vorobyov's crew members have not survived). During the attack of a cluster of German equipment, Gastello's plane was shot down. According to the reports of Vorobiev and Rybas, Gastello's burning plane rammed a mechanized column of enemy equipment. At night, peasants from the nearby village of Dekshnyany removed the corpses of the pilots from the plane and, wrapping the bodies in parachutes, buried them near the crash site of the bomber.

Soon Gastello's feat received widespread press coverage. On July 5, 1941, in the evening report of the Soviet Information Bureau, the feat of N.F. Gastello was first mentioned:

On the basis of the message of the Soviet Information Bureau, correspondents P. Pavlenko, P. Krylov wrote the essay "Captain Gastello", which was published in the newspaper "Pravda" on July 10, 1941.

Noteworthy is the date of the feat of Gastello, indicated in the article, - July 3. Probably, the authors of the essay, having specified the correct spelling of the hero's surname and the facts of his biography, made a conclusion about the date of Gastello's death based on the date of the message from the Soviet Information Bureau. The article in Pravda had a wide resonance, the feat of Gastello was widely used by Soviet propaganda.

On July 25, 1941, the commander of the 207th DBAP, Captain Lobanov and regimental commissar Kuznetsov, N.F. Gastello, was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The award sheet says:

The very next day after the presentation, Captain Gastello Nikolai Frantsevich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). By order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Captain Gastello N.F. was forever enlisted in the lists of one of the aviation regiments.

Gastello's "Fire Ram" became one of the most famous examples of heroism in the history of the Great Patriotic War and was used for military-patriotic propaganda and education of young people both during the war and in the post-war period, until the collapse of the USSR. Alternative versions of events near the village of Dekshnyany and attempts to investigate the deaths of Gastello and Maslov were suppressed or classified. The members of Gastello's crew - G. N. Skorobogaty, A. A. Kalinin, A. A. Burdenyuk - remained in the shadow of the commander's feat. Only in 1958 they were awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (posthumously).

"Gastellotsy"

Through the efforts of Soviet propaganda, the feat of N.F. Gastello became one of the most famous in the history of the Great Patriotic War, and the surname Gastello itself was a household name. The pilots who committed the "fire ram" were called "Gastellers". In total, during the Great Patriotic War, 595 "classic" air rams (by airplane aircraft), 506 rams by ground target aircraft, 16 sea rams (this number may include ramming by sea pilots of enemy surface and coastal targets) and 160 tank rams were committed. It should be noted that there is a certain inconsistency in the sources regarding the number of ram attacks. For example, the article "Brothers of Nikolai Gastello" speaks only of 14 sea rams and only 52 tank rams, 506 rams by aircraft of a ground target, but 600 air rams. Aviation Major General A.D. Zaitsev in his book "Weapons of the Strong in Spirit" estimates the number of air rams at more than 620. At the same time, aviation historians write: are still unidentified. " There is no unity in the assessment of the number of "fiery rams" proper. For example, Yuri Ivanov, in his work "Kamikaze: Suicide Pilots", estimates the number of such rams committed by Soviet pilots in 1941-1945. the size of "about 350". At the end of this point, it should also be noted that a number of Soviet pilots rammed the enemy more than once: 34 pilots used an air ram twice, four - Leonid Ivanovich Borisov, Vladimir Ivanovich Matveev, Nikolai Vasilyevich Teryokhin, Alexey Stepanovich Khlobystov - three times, and Boris Ivanovich Kovzan - four times.

Exhumation of the alleged grave of Gastello

In 1951, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the famous "fire battering ram" for the subsequent ceremonial burial, the remains from the alleged grave of Gastello were exhumed. His things were not in the grave, but personal belongings of Gastello's colleagues were found - the commander of the 1st squadron of the 207th DBAP captain Alexander Spiridonovich Maslov and the gunner-radio operator Grigory Vasilyevich Reutov. Maslov's crew was reported missing on the same day Gastello allegedly performed his feat. Lieutenant Colonel Kotelnikov, who supervised the reburial, conducted a secret investigation with the approval of the party authorities, as a result of which it turned out that Maslov's plane crashed at the site of the alleged battering ram of Gastello. Maslov's crew was quietly reburied at the Radoshkovichi cemetery, fragments of Maslov's bomber were sent to the country's museums as the remains of Gastello's plane, a monument dedicated to the feat of the crew of N.F. Gastello was erected at the site of the death of Maslov's crew. The exhumation of Gastello's alleged grave was not made public until the era of publicity, when it first leaked to the media.

Alternative version

In the 1990s, a different version of the events near the village of Dekshnyany appeared in the media. (retired Major Eduard Kharitonov became its author)... Data on the exhumation of the alleged grave of Gastello in 1951 were made public. Due to the fact that the remains of Maslov's crew were found there, it was suggested that it was Maslov who was the author of the "fiery ram" attributed to Gastello. In 1996, by decree of President Yeltsin, Maslov and all members of his crew were awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously).

The reliability of the reports of Vorobiev and Rybas has been questioned. First, there was an assumption that the pilots who flew away from the place of the battle did not see the actual ramming by the Gastello plane, linking the fall of the Gastello bomber and the column of smoke that rose near the road. Secondly, it has been suggested that the reports could have been redone during the campaign to glorify Gastello in July-August 1941. Thirdly, the reports of Vorobiev and Rybas themselves have not survived, there are only documents referring to them. Fourthly, Vorobyov and Rybas served in the 96th DBAP, which was located at the same airfield as the 207th DBAP, in which Maslov and Gastello fought. According to supporters of the alternative version, crews from different regiments could not fly on a mission in the same flight.

Afterwards, there were reports that the wreckage of the original Gastello plane was located not far from the place of Maslov's death, in the Matskovsky swamp near the village of Matski. The plane crashed near Matski, according to the testimony of local residents, on June 26, 1941. They found a charred corpse, in the pocket of the tunic of which there was a letter addressed to Skorobogataya (supposedly the wife of the shooter of Gastello's crew - Grigory Nikolayevich Skorobogaty), as well as a medallion with the initials A.A.K. (possibly the gunner-radio operator Gastello - Alexei Alexandrovich Kalinin). But the main thing is that a wreck was found here, which was unequivocally identified as part of the plane by N.F. Gastello - a tag from the M-87B engine with serial number 87844.

According to the testimony of local residents of the village of Matski, one person from the alleged genuine Gastello plane parachuted from the wing of the falling plane and was captured by the Germans. The testimony of a local resident is confirmed by the document "List of irrecoverable losses of commanding officers and rank-and-file personnel of the 42nd Air Division from 22.06 to 28.06.41" signed by the head of the combat unit, foreman Bokov. At the end of the names of Gastello's crew members, a postscript: "One person from this crew jumped with a parachute, who is unknown." At the same time, it is not clear where this information came from, because this moment was not reflected in the report of Vorobiev and Rybas, and the inhabitants of the village of Matski were already in the occupied territory. The design feature of the DB-3f bomber is that only the pilot can jump from the wing. This gave the supporters of the alternative version a reason to assert that Gastello abandoned the dying board and crew for his own salvation. However, strictly speaking, it is not even completely clear which plane the parachutist jumped out of, which is referred to in the document signed by Bokov (not to mention the fact that the witnesses could be mistaken in their observations that the jump was from the wing) - from a car later taken for a Gastello car (that is, Maslov's plane) or indeed from a Gastello plane. It is also worth noting that Gastello, apparently, really tried to direct his plane to the enemy's location - otherwise it is difficult to explain why his DB-3f made a U-turn back to the village of Matski (and there was just a German military unit there).

It is suggested that of the two equally likely candidates for the feat at that moment, it was Gastello that was chosen for several reasons:

• He was an ethnic Belarusian;
• Its crew was international: Burdenyuk - Ukrainian, Kalinin - Nenets, Skorobogaty - Russian;
• On his account was already shot down "Junkers-88";
• During the battles on the Khalkhin-Gol River in 1939, he served in the same regiment together with the battalion commissar M.A.Yuyukin, who for the first time in aviation rammed a ground target; according to some reports, N.F. Gastello was the navigator on the Yuyukin bomber during the ram (this version is erroneous, it is not confirmed by the main researchers of the life of N.F. Gastello, including his son Victor Gastello).

However, the version that a certain “choice” was made between Gastello and Maslov for the role of the “hero” is unlikely: the heroic death of Gastello was reflected in the reports of Vorobiev and Rybas, while there was no evidence of Maslov's plane crash, he was considered “missing without a trace".

Criticism of the alternative version

A number of researchers (first of all, the son of N.F. Gastello - retired colonel Victor Gastello) question the facts on which the alternative version is built and reject it as completely untenable. In their opinion:

• The testimony of Vorobiev and Rybas is the main and irrefutable evidence of Gastello's feat;
• The evidence that the plane crashed in the Matskovsky swamp was piloted by Gastello is untenable;
• The discovered remains of Maslov and his crew indicate that his plane did not ram, but crashed into the ground on a "low level" flight (another version is also possible - Maslov tried to ram an enemy convoy, but missed; an indirect confirmation of this hypothesis is the discovery of the wreckage of Maslov's plane at a short distance - only 170-180 meters - distance from the road)
• The absence of Gastello's remains testifies to the fact that he did indeed commit a "fire ram"; as a result of the explosion of a convoy with fuel and ammunition, neither the plane nor the remains of the crew can be identified.

Facts

In the history of Gastello's feat, the following can be considered reliable facts:

• The planes of both Gastello and Maslova crashed during a combat mission on June 26, 1941
• The crash site of the plane near the village of Dekshnyany, which was considered the place of the ram of N.F. Gastello, is in fact the place of the death of Maslov's plane

Establishing the truth is complicated by the fact that the witnesses of the Gastello ram - Senior Lieutenant Vorobiev and Lieutenant Rybas - died in 1941, the 207th DBAP was disbanded in September 1941, many documents were lost both during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period.

Myths about the feat of Gastello

As in the course of the Great Patriotic War, so in the post-war period, the feat of Gastello stood out from the number of similar ones by Soviet propaganda, served as an example of heroism and self-sacrifice. In this regard, in the public consciousness, several persistent misconceptions have developed about N.F. Gastello and the uniqueness of his feat:

• Gastello committed the first ever ramming of a ground target.

The first ramming by an airplane of a ground target was carried out by the Soviet pilot Mikhail Anisimovich Yuyukin on August 5, 1939 during the battles on the Khalkhin-Gol River (if we take all the "fire rams" - both land and sea targets - the first such ram was made by the Chinese pilot Shen Changhai 19 August 1937).

• Gastello made the first ram in the history of the Great Patriotic War.

The first ram in the history of the Great Patriotic War was carried out by the Soviet pilot D.V. Kokorev on June 22, 1941 at approximately 4:15 pm (for a long time, I.I.Ivanov was considered the author of the first ram in the history of the Great Patriotic War, but in fact he committed his ram 10 minutes later than Kokorev).

• Gastello made the first land target ram in the history of World War II.

The first ram of a ground target in the history of the Great Patriotic War was carried out by the Soviet pilot P. S. Chirkin on June 22, 1941.

• Gastello rammed not a tank column, but an anti-aircraft battery.

This misconception was formed due to the fact that the crash site near the village of Dekshnyany, officially considered the site of Gastello's feat, is located about 180 meters from the road. There was another version: Gastello rammed a mechanized convoy, which was refueling off the side of the road.

• Gastello accomplished his feat alone.

This misconception was formed due to the fact that when telling about the exploit of N.F. Gastello, the members of his crew, as a rule, were not mentioned.

• Gastello rammed while driving a fighter.

This misconception arose due to the fact that fighter pilots were the main heroes of aviation in post-war fiction. A number of works were created (for example, the play "Gastello" by IV Stock, 1947), in which NF Gastello performed his feat on a fighter plane.

• Gastello was a navigator in the crew of M.A.Yuyukin, who committed the first ever ramming of a ground target August 5, 1939 during the events on the Khalkhin-Gol River.

This delusion supported the continuity of the heroic "ramming traditions", Yuyukin was called Gastello's "mentor". In fact, the name and surname of the navigator MA Yuyukin is precisely known - Alexander Morkovkin (he jumped with a parachute just in front of the ram). Gastello was a fellow soldier of Yuyukin.

Memory

Playwright Isidor Vladimirovich Stock in 1947 wrote the play "Gastello", in which the hero performs his "fire ram" alone and on a fighter plane.

• Gastello - a village in the Poronaysky district of the Sakhalin region
• Them. Gastello - a mine in the Tenkinsky district of the Magadan region

Streets in many cities of Russia, Ukraine, as well as Belarus and Kazakhstan, including Lipetsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ulan-Ude, bear the name Gastello.

Monuments to N.F. Gastello are installed:

• On the Minsk-Vilnius highway, at the place where it was believed that N. Gastello rammed (1976)
• In Moscow, in Sokolniki
• In the city of Murom, Vladimir region
• In Ufa (1985)
• In Lugansk (on the territory of the former Voroshilovgrad Higher Military Aviation School of Navigators)
• In the village. Radoshkovichi, in the square on the square that bears his name
• in the village Khlebnikovo (now - the territory of Dolgoprudny), near school number 3, bearing his name
• In the city of Choibalsan, Mongolia, in the courtyard of the school No. 1 that bears his name. The Mongols position this Gastello monument, first of all, as a pilot who took part in the battles on Khalkhin Gol.
• In the city of Rostov-on-Don.
• In the city of Odessa (Ukraine), on the street bearing his name, there is a school № 31 named. N. Gastello. Opposite the school, in a small square, there is a monument to Nikolai Gastello.
• In the Omsk region, on the territory of the children's health camp named after Captain Gastello.
• A monument was erected in the city of Fergana of the Uzbek SSR on the territory of the Military Transport Aviation Regiment named after Gastello.

In Ufa there is a stadium named after N.F. Gastello.

In Kyzyl there is a park of culture and recreation named after N.F. Gastello.

In the city of Khabarovsk, a park is named in honor of the hero.

The Great Patriotic War claimed the lives of many young children who died defending their homeland. One of them is Lenya Golikov.

In the Pskov region, in the village of Lukino, a boy, Lenya Golikov, lived. He studied at school, helped his parents with household chores, and made friends with the children. But suddenly the Great Patriotic War began, and everything that he dreamed of in a peaceful life suddenly came to an end. When the war began, he was only 15 years old.

The Nazis seized his village, began to commit atrocities, tried to establish their own "new order." Together with the adults, Lenya went to a partisan detachment to fight against the Nazis. The partisans attacked enemy columns, blew up trains, and destroyed German soldiers and officers.

The fascists were afraid of the partisans. The captured Germans declared during interrogations: “Around every turn, behind every tree, behind every house and corner, we dreamed of terrible Russian partisans. We were afraid to go and walk one at a time. And the partisans were elusive. "

The young partisan Leni Golikov had a lot of military affairs. But one thing was special.

In August 1942, Lenya was in an ambush near the road. Suddenly he saw a luxurious German car driving along the road. He knew that very important fascists were transported in such cars, and decided to stop this car at all costs. First he looked for guards, let the car get closer, and then threw a grenade at it. The grenade exploded next to the car, and two hefty Fritz jumped out of it and ran to Lyona. But he was not frightened and began to shoot at them from a machine gun. He immediately laid one down, and the second began to run away into the forest, but Lenin's bullet caught up with him. One of the fascists turned out to be General Richard Witz. They found important documents with him and immediately sent them to Moscow. Soon, from the General Staff of the partisan movement, an order was received to present all the participants in the daring operation to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And there was only one participant ... Young Lenya Golikov! It turns out that Lenya obtained valuable information - drawings and descriptions of new samples of German mines, inspection reports to higher command, minefield maps and other important military papers.

For this feat Lyonya Golikov was nominated for the highest government award - the Gold Star medal and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But the hero did not have time to receive the award. In December 1942, Golikov's partisan detachment was surrounded by the Germans. After fierce battles, the detachment managed to break through the encirclement and go to another area. 50 people remained in the ranks, the radio was broken, cartridges were running out. Attempts to establish contact with other detachments and stock up on food ended in the death of the partisans. On a January night in 1943, 27 exhausted soldiers came out to the village of Ostraya Luka and occupied three extreme huts. The reconnaissance found nothing suspicious - the German garrison was located several kilometers away. The commander of the detachment decided not to post patrols so as not to attract attention. In the morning, the partisans' sleep was interrupted by the roar of a machine gun - a traitor was found in the village, who told the Germans who had come to the village at night. I had to fight back to the forest ...

Polyashov N. The feat of the Hero of the Soviet Union Smirnov Yu.V. : [head of search G.А. Belyakova, teacher of school number 105] // Chronicle of feat, 1941-1945 [Electronic resource] - N. Novgorod: MUK "TsBS" Avtozavodsky district, 2010. - 1 electron. wholesale disc (CDR).

Eternal glory to the martyr - Hero of the Komsomol Y. Smirnov,

fallen for the freedom and independence of our Motherland

I live in the Avtozavodsky district. When I go for a walk in the park, I often pass by a house on which there is a memorial plaque dedicated to Hero of the Soviet Union Yuri Vasilyevich Smirnov. I calculated that when he died he was only 19 years old. And I was interested in what feat this young man accomplished, that at such a young age he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. I came home, sat down at the computer and entered the Internet. I learned a lot of interesting things about him: how he grew up, how he got to the front, how he was wounded, how he died.

Yu. V. Smirnov was born on September 2, 1925 in the village of Dedushkovo, Makaryevsky District, Kostroma Region, into a working class family. Yura was the third child in the family. His two sisters, Antonina and Lyudmila, were older than him.

In 1933, the Smirnov family moved to the city of Makariev and settled on Kladbischinskaya Street. In the same year, Yuri entered the 1st grade of the Makaryevskaya secondary school.

Yura grew up as a mischievous, desperate boy. He could rush at full speed on a bareback horse, sitting, for a laugh, back to front. Could ride on an ice floe during a rough ice drift on the Unzha River. But most of all Yura loved horses. He dreamed of getting into the army and definitely becoming a cavalryman.

After finishing 6th grade, Yuri went to study at the Makaryevskoe vocational school №11 (power engineers). Here he studied as an electric welder. Having received a certificate in the specialty of an electric welder of the 3rd category, in February 1942, Yuri, together with the whole group, was sent to the city of Gorky to work at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant.

At the end of 1942, his father Vasily Averyanovich died at the front near Stalingrad (Volgograd). Yura firmly decided to go to the front as a volunteer.

In February 1943, the Makaryevsky military registration and enlistment office drafted Yuri Smirnov into the army. In March-April 1943, he was trained in a military unit located in the village of Kleshchevka, Shuisky district, Ivanovo region.

On May 1, 1943, Yuri Smirnov was enlisted as a cadet of the 15th training rifle regiment, located in Pavlovsky Posad, Moscow region. Here he received the rank of junior sergeant of the guard and on November 13, 1943, was sent to the active army.

Soon after arriving at the front, in a battle near Vitebsk, Yuri was wounded and ended up in a hospital. In a letter home, Yura said: "I am writing from the hospital. I was wounded in the jaw. The wound is minor. I will soon recover and go back to the front. I would rather like to get into my unit. She is now my second home. Mom, do not worry about me, I serve well, I follow all orders." Yuri "... A month later, Yuri was in the company again.

Yu. Smirnov fought in the 77th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 26th Guards Rifle Division of the 11th Guards Army of KN Golitsky of the 3rd Belorussian Front under the command of Colonel General ID Chernyakhovsky.

In the summer of 1944, along the entire Orsha direction, Soviet troops began military offensive operations (the plan of Operation Bagration). The troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front on June 23 went on the offensive, delivering simultaneously two powerful blows: one in the direction of Bogushevsk, the other in the direction of Orsha.

The city of Orsha was the most important center of the enemy's defense, covering the routes from the "Smolensk Gate" to Minsk. To the east of Orsha, the enemy created several defensive zones with a total depth of 25-30 km. Orsha was surrounded by defensive structures of the outer circumference, which had two and three lines of trenches.

The task of the Soviet command was to break through the "impregnable bastion" as Hitler himself called the impenetrable swamps, minefields and 17 lines of trenches with barbed wire, behind which the 78 SS assault division under the command of General Von Trout was hiding, and to seize the Moscow-Minsk highway north of Orsha.

The very first day of the fighting was marked by a significant success of the Soviet troops in the direction of Bogushevsk. At a rapid pace, the troops broke through the enemy's main line of defense. Further south, in the direction of Orsha, our troops met strong resistance. For 2 days of bloody battles on June 22-23, 1944, our troops were not successful. The question arose about organizing a tank landing on June 24, which was faced with the task of attacking the enemy's defenses in the flank and rear, capturing the village of Shalashino and cutting off the Minsk-Moscow highway.

The infantry for the landing was selected only from the volunteers of the 77th Guards Rifle Regiment. Senior Lieutenant Vyacheslav Zelenyuk was engaged in the selection of the guard, he commanded an assault group of infantry. And Yuri Smirnov volunteered for the paratrooper formation. Hanged with ammunition bags and grenades, Yuri took his place in armored vehicle # 119. To the distracting roar of Soviet artillery, under the cover of darkness, our tanks moved forward. They broke through the trenches, passed the ditches and attacked the German artillery positions. But Yura Smirnov was not among the comrades. Knocked down by an enemy bullet from his tank armor, he fell on the edge of a grove near the village of Shalashino, not far from the headquarters of the 78th German assault division.

The Germans dragged him into the dugout and began to interrogate him. The Nazis were interested in the direction of movement of the Soviet tanks that had broken through to the rear, their number and mission. Yuri did not answer questions, thereby remaining faithful to the military oath. Then the Germans used a terrible savage medieval torture: he was crucified alive on the wall of the dugout. But he gathered his last strength and spat in the face of the German officer, thereby expressing all his contempt for the enemies.

And here is how senior lieutenant Kustov Pyotr Alekseevich recalls:

“I, being in the combat dress of my regiment, after breaking through the German defense near the village of Shalashino, Dubrovinsky district of the Vitebsk region, passing through the German positions, entered one of the German dugouts. the table, the walls were hung with posters, among them are two portraits of Hitler. Looking at the right wall, I saw a man leaning back, as it seemed to me, naked, with his arms outstretched to the side. Coming closer, I saw that this man was nailed to the dugout boards His body was crucified on a special cross made of boards, one board passed along the back, and the second across, at shoulder height. So a cross was obtained. The man's hands were nailed to this cross with nails. The nails were large and driven to the very head.

Two nails stuck out in the forehead, representing a pair of crutches without caps. They pierced through the head, above the eyes. The legs of the crucified were pierced with nails with hats in the instep. The legs were in socks, and the whole corpse was stripped and blackened, apparently from the blows. There were cuts and stab wounds on the chest. The face is swollen. It was disfigured by blows of cold steel. Looking around the room more attentively, I saw a Red Army book and an open Komsomol ticket on the table. I read these documents and established that they belong to the guard private Yu. V. Smirnov of the 1st battalion of the 77th Guards Rifle Regiment ... ".

And here is an excerpt from the interrogation protocol of the captive Lieutenant General Von Trout, the former commander of the 78th assault division:

“My division took up defenses south of Orsha, west of the village of Shalashino. Before midnight, I was informed of a group of Soviet tanks that had broken through. I immediately sent several groups of machine gunners with the order to take a prisoner. After a while, a paratrooper was brought to my headquarters dugout, he was wounded.

Question: Was this paratrooper Private Yuri Smirnov of the Guard?

Answer: Yes, his last name was Smirnov.

Question: How long did the interrogation last?

Answer: Until morning. Until the time when I was informed that a tank landing had cut the Minsk-Moscow highway.

Question: What did you learn from the interrogation?

Answer: Nothing. The Russian soldier said nothing. We pinned great hopes on the interrogation, if we knew where the tanks were going and how many there were, we would organize a rebuff. We would have saved the important strategic highway Orsha - Minsk, and who knows how the Orsha operation would have turned, in any case, I would not have been a prisoner of war.

Question: What happened to Yuri Smirnov?

Answer: During interrogation, he died.

Question: What methods did you use during the interrogation?

Answer: I refuse to answer this question.

Yuri Smirnov was buried with military honors near the village of Shalashino. In 1947, his ashes were transferred to the village of Orekhovsk in the Vitebsk region of Belarus, where his grave is still located.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 6, 1944, Junior Sergeant Smirnov Yuri Vasilyevich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism of the guards displayed at the same time.

Decorated with Orders: Lenin and Patriotic War 1st degree.

His name is enlisted forever in the regiment's lists, the 1st rifle company of the 1st rifle battalion of the 77th Guards rifle regiment, in which he served, is named after him. An obelisk was erected at the place of his death near the village of Shalashino, and a monument on the grave in the village of Belgras.

On the territory of the Kleshchevka rest home, where a young boy from Kostroma took a course for a young soldier in a military unit, front-line friends, even during the war, erected a strict obelisk with a star and a portrait in honor of the hero.

In the Dubrovensky district, Vitebsk region, a memorial complex "Rylenki" was erected in 1973 - at the Rylensky fraternal cemetery, the burial place of 10 thousand Soviet soldiers of the 11th Guards and 31st armies who died in this area in fierce battles from October 1943 to June 1944 ... At the entrance on the territory of the memorial there is a gate with relief images of the faces of soldiers. The main composition of the memorial is made up of 164 plates with the names of the soldiers buried here. Along the road from the gate to the slabs, there are four steles dedicated to the feats accomplished in the area. One of them - to the Hero of the Soviet Union Yuri Vasilyevich Smirnov.

Makaryevites are proud of their fellow countrymen! The street where the family of Yu. Smirnov lived was renamed into Yu. Smirnov Street.

In 1958, a memorial plaque "Here in 1941-1942 the Hero of the Soviet Union Yu. V. Smirnov studied" was erected on the building of the Makaryevsky school.

In 1965, the school was named after the Hero of the Soviet Union Yu.V. Smirnov, as the memorial plaque on the building says:

In honor of the 60th anniversary of the birth of Yu. V. Smirnov in 1985, a memorial plaque was installed on the building of the Makarievskaya secondary school. Hero of the Soviet Union Yu. V. Smirnov studied at this school from 1933 to 1941.

On Yuri Smirnov Street in Kostroma, two memorial plaques are installed at once.

Leafing through the pages of the Internet, I learned that Yuri Smirnov, his feat, is known not only in his homeland and at the place of his death, but throughout Russia.

In the town of Kineshma, Ivanovo region, a bust was installed near the building of school number 10, which once bears the name of Hero of the Soviet Union Yuri Smirnov.

The cargo liner Yuri Smirnov, built at the A. A. Zhdanov Leningrad Shipyard in 1976, is sailing off the coast of Kamchatka.

In our city there is also a place associated with his name: one of the streets in the center of the Avtozavodsky district bears the name of Yu. V. Smirnov. A memorial plaque is installed on the house number 13 along this street.

And also my mother told me that at school №137 on the street. Smirnova in the Avtozavodsky district, where she studied, there was a museum of military glory. The museum was created and directed by the teacher of history and basic military training, a former front-line soldier, tanker Vladimir Mikhailovich Zotov. In this museum, a large exposition was dedicated to the feat of Yu. V. Smirnov. In the museum there were front-line photographs, memoirs of fellow soldiers, letters, documents, fragments of grenades, shell casings, helmets and other evidence of the war collected by the search groups of the school on the battlefield. There was even a model of a dugout in which Yu. Smirnov was tortured. Then the museum "moved" to school # 125 in the Northern settlement. Now the students of both this school and the nearest schools come there to watch and hear about the exploit of Y. Smirnov and other heroes of the war.

But, unfortunately, I also learned that the memory of the hero is not always treated so with respect. So on the territory of the Kleshchevka holiday home, in 1984, the obelisk erected in honor of Yuri Smirnov, apparently considering it obsolete, was decided to be replaced with a vertical slab with a bas-relief of a Soviet soldier and the words “Dedicated to the memory of the Hero of the Soviet Union Yu. Smirnov”. Today a mutilated slab stands on this place, but without the warrior's bas-relief. Only dedication remained.

And there is no obelisk with a portrait of the hero put up by fellow soldiers. And I am very offended for such disrespect for the soldiers who gave their lives for us.

Having studied the history of Y. Smirnov's life, I realized what immortal heroism and courage this young man showed in the war. I admire his steadfastness and courage.

Yuri Smirnov lived a short but bright life. The one who gave his life for the glory of the Motherland does not die! The memory of Yuri Smirnov is forever preserved in the hearts of our people.

Everyone knew about the feat of the Soviet pilot Nikolai Gastello and his crew in Soviet times. The people called this feat "The Fiery Ram". This was not the first aerial ramming involving Soviet pilots, but it was really special and not entirely aerial. In any case, if you adhere to the dubious official version and reports of the Soviet Information Bureau, which gave rise to many unnecessary myths and rumors in this story. But before that, let's briefly analyze the military situation at the time of the feat ...

On June 22, 1941, at 3.30 am, Germany invades the territory of the USSR without declaring war. The Soviet people are waiting for the voice of their leader, Stalin, but instead of him, at noon on June 22, 1941, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Vyacheslav Molotov, announced the start of the war with Germany to the Soviet people. And in the following days, this appeal was published in all newspapers with a portrait of Stalin next to the text. Further, on June 24, an information and propaganda department was created in the USSR - the sovinformburo, which was subordinate to the party and personally to Joseph Stalin.

The main task of the Bureau was to compile reports for radio, newspapers and magazines about the situation at the fronts, the work of the rear, about the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War.

“Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Soldiers of our army and navy! I appeal to you, my friends! .. "

On the same day, the war became known as the Great Patriotic War.

And shortly before Stalin's appeal to the people, on June 27, 1941, the leader, who remained silent for more than 10 days, was awarded the highest military rank - Generalissimo of the Soviet Union.

Soviet philosopher and party leader Vladimir Semyonovich Kruzhkov recalled:

“We always submitted reports on battles on the fronts to Stalin before graduation. If things went badly, they returned from him unrecognizable ... The leader did not spare the Germans. If, according to our reports, we counted all the aircraft, tanks, ships, guns and manpower lost by the enemy, then neither in Germany, nor in the Europe captured by it, there would be no people or equipment left by the middle of the war! In the most difficult first months of the war about the abandoned cities, Stalin gave the go-ahead to report only a few days later, when the battles were already far behind them and it was impossible to remain silent. "

In preparation for this article, I read the entire summary dated July 5, 1941 - it reflected many curious feats, heroism of perseverance and courage of the Soviet soldier and the people ... Which of the statements in the summary was true and which is a lie, we will never know.

It is interesting, if we assume that most of the information in the report is "linden", then it turns out that the sovinformburo is a classic example of a lie for good. After all, if people were told real things about what happened during the war years on the fronts, about all the mistakes of generals and chiefs of staff, information about real losses on the part of the Soviet army, and about many other things, then we would not have won the war ...

But back to the feat of Captain Nikolai Gastello and the most controversial points in the summary and the official version. I will emphasize the most controversial lines in these high-profile statements.

“The squadron commander Captain Gastello performed a heroic feat. An enemy anti-aircraft gun shell hit the gas tank of his aircraft. The fearless commander directed the flaming plane at the accumulation of enemy vehicles and gasoline tanks. Dozens of German cars and tanks exploded together with the hero's plane. "

More like a beautifully written script for a historical movie. With the same sentence, the summary crosses out the last sentence in the official version ...

Official version

“On June 26, 1941, a flight under the command of Captain NF Gastello, consisting of two DB-3F heavy bombers, took off for a combat sortie to the Radoshkovichi - Molodechno area. The second plane was flown by Senior Lieutenant Fyodor Vorobyov, Lieutenant Anatoly Rybas flew with him as a navigator (the names of two more Vorobyov's crew members have not survived). During the attack of a cluster of German equipment, Gastello's plane was shot down. According to the reports of Vorobyov and Rybas, Gastello's burning plane rammed a mechanized column of enemy equipment. At night, peasants from the nearby village of Dekshnyany removed the corpses of the pilots from the plane and, wrapping the bodies in parachutes, buried them near the crash site of the bomber.

It turns out that the parachutes and bodies of the pilots have survived ... In the explosion of tanks and a dozen cars along with the pilot's plane ... Why does the summary contradict of. version?

I have no reason to doubt the feat and heroism of Captain Gastello, in no case do I deny the feat. As stated above, we will never know the truth. I just wanted to demonstrate how unprofessional people were when covering this particular feat. It is clear from the underlined lines that the report before the publicity definitely passed through the leader himself or the person in charge of propaganda.

And it was thanks to her that on July 5, 1941, the country learned the name of Captain Nikolai Gostello, and his feat instantly spread throughout the headquarters and the whole country, and his example was followed by hundreds of Soviet pilots who fought the enemy until the very last second of their lives. The battering ram of the ground target of Gastello became a model of heroism and self-sacrifice.

"Gastellotsy"

Through the efforts of Soviet propaganda, the feat of N.F. Gastello became one of the most famous in the history of the Great Patriotic War, and Gastello's surname became a household name.

The pilots who committed the "fire ram" were called "Gastellers". In total, during the Great Patriotic War, 595 "classic" air rams (by airplane aircraft), 506 rams by ground target aircraft, 16 sea rams (this number may include ramming by sea pilots of enemy surface and coastal targets) and 160 tank rams were committed. Although, before these numbers it is more correct to use the word "about". We will never know the exact and reliable figures during the war and after it.

Alternative version

In the 1990s, a different version of the events near the village of Dekshnyany appeared in the media (it was authored by retired Major Eduard Kharitonov). Data on the exhumation of the alleged grave of Gastello in 1951 were made public. Due to the fact that the remains of Maslov's crew were found there, it was suggested that it was Maslov who was the author of the "fiery ram" attributed to Gastello. In 1996, by decree of President Yeltsin, Maslov and all members of his crew were awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously).

The reliability of the reports of Vorobiev and Rybas has been questioned.

• At first, there was an assumption that the pilots who flew away from the place of the battle did not see the direct ramming by the Gastello plane, linking the fall of the Gastello bomber and the column of smoke that rose near the road.
• Secondly, it has been suggested that the reports could have been redone during the campaign to glorify Gastello in July-August 1941.
• Thirdly, the reports of Vorobiev and Rybas themselves have not survived, there are only documents referring to them.
• Fourthly, Vorobiev and Rybas served in the 96th DBAP, which was located at the same airfield as the 207th DBAP, in which Maslov and Gastello fought. According to supporters of the alternative version, crews from different regiments could not fly on a mission in the same flight.

After that, there were reports that the wreckage of the original Gastello plane was located not far from the place of Maslov's death, in the Matskovsky swamp near the village of Matski. The plane crashed near Matski, according to the testimony of local residents, on June 26, 1941. They found a charred corpse, in the pocket of the tunic of which there was a letter addressed to Skorobogataya (supposedly the wife of the shooter of Gastello's crew - Grigory Nikolayevich Skorobogaty), as well as a medallion with the initials A.A.K. (possibly the gunner-radio operator Gastello - Alexei Alexandrovich Kalinin). But the main thing is that a wreck was found here, which was unequivocally identified as part of the plane by N.F. Gastello - a tag from the M-87B engine with serial number 87844.

According to the testimony of local residents of the village of Matski, one person from the alleged genuine Gastello plane parachuted from the wing of the falling plane and was captured by the Germans. The testimony of a local resident is confirmed by the document "List of irrecoverable losses of commanding officers and rank-and-file personnel of the 42nd Air Division from 22.06 to 28.06.41" signed by the head of the combat unit, foreman Bokov.

At the end of the names of Gastello's crew members, there is a postscript: "One person from this crew jumped out with a parachute, who is unknown."

At the same time, it is not clear where this information came from, because this moment was not reflected in the report of Vorobiev and Rybas, and the inhabitants of the village of Matski were already in the occupied territory. The design feature of the DB-3f bomber is that only the pilot can jump from the wing. This gave the supporters of the alternative version a reason to assert that Gastello abandoned the dying board and crew for his own salvation. However, strictly speaking, it is not even completely clear which plane the parachutist jumped out of, which is referred to in the document signed by Bokov (not to mention the fact that the witnesses could be mistaken in their observations that the jump was from the wing) - from a car later taken for a Gastello car (that is, Maslov's plane) or indeed from a Gastello plane. It is also worth noting that Gastello, apparently, really tried to direct his plane to the enemy's location - otherwise it is difficult to explain why his DB-3f made a U-turn back to the village of Matski (and there was just a German military unit there).

It is suggested that of the two equally likely candidates for the feat at that moment, it was Gastello that was chosen for several reasons:

• he was an ethnic Belarusian (as it was believed, in fact, a Russian German);
• its crew was international: Burdenyuk - Ukrainian, Kalinin - Nenets, Skorobogaty - Russian;
• on his account was already shot down "Junkers-88";
• during the battles on the Khalkhin-Gol River in 1939, he served in the same regiment together with the battalion commissar M.A.Yuyukin, who for the first time in aviation rammed a ground target;
• according to some reports, N.F. Gastello was a navigator on Yuyukin's bomber during the ramming (this version is erroneous, it is not confirmed by the main researchers of the life of N.F. Gastello, including his son Victor Gastello).

However, the version that a certain “choice” was made between Gastello and Maslov for the role of the “hero” is unlikely: the heroic death of Gastello was reflected in the reports of Vorobiev and Rybas, while there was no evidence of Maslov's plane crash, he was considered “missing without a trace". However, like the reports of Vorobiev and Rybas themselves.

Facts

In the history of Gastello's feat, the following can be considered reliable facts:

• the planes Gastello and Maslov crashed during a combat mission on June 26, 1941;
• the crash site of the plane near the village of Dekshnyany, which was considered the place of the ram of N.F. Gastello, is in fact the site of the death of Maslov's plane.

Establishing the truth is complicated by the fact that the witnesses of the Gastello ram - Senior Lieutenant Vorobiev and Lieutenant Rybas died in 1941, the 207th DBAP was disbanded in September 1941, many documents of the air regiment were lost both during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period.

Myths about the feat of Gastello

As in the course of the Great Patriotic War, so in the post-war period, the feat of Gastello stood out from the number of similar ones by Soviet propaganda, served as an example of heroism and self-sacrifice. In this regard, in the public consciousness, several persistent misconceptions have developed about N.F. Gastello and the uniqueness of his feat:

Gastello committed the first ever ramming of a ground target

The first ramming by an airplane of a ground target was made by the Soviet pilot Mikhail Anisimovich Yuyukin on August 5, 1939 during the battles on the Khalkhin-Gol River; if we take all the "fire rams" - both land and sea targets - the first such ram was made by the Chinese pilot Shen Changhai on August 19, 1937.

Gastello made the first ram in the history of the Great Patriotic War

The first ram in the history of the Great Patriotic War was carried out by the Soviet pilot D.V. Kokorev on June 22, 1941, at approximately 4 hours 15 minutes (for a long time, I.I.Ivanov was considered the author of the first ram in the history of the Great Patriotic War, but in fact he committed his ram 10 minutes later than Kokorev).

Gastello made the first land target ram in the history of World War II

The first ram of a ground target in the history of the Great Patriotic War was carried out by the Soviet pilot P. S. Chirkin on June 22, 1941.

Gastello rammed not a tank column, but an anti-aircraft battery

This misconception was formed due to the fact that the crash site near the village of Dekshnyany, officially considered the site of Gastello's feat, is located about 180 meters from the road. There was another version: Gastello rammed a mechanized convoy, which was refueling off the side of the road.

Gastello accomplished his feat alone

This misconception was formed due to the fact that when telling about the exploit of N.F. Gastello, the members of his crew, as a rule, were not mentioned.

Gastello rammed while driving a fighter

This misconception arose due to the fact that fighter pilots were the main heroes of aviation in post-war fiction. A number of works were created (for example, the play "Gastello" by IV Stock, 1947), in which NF Gastello performed his feat on a fighter plane.

Gastello was a navigator in the crew of M.A.Yuyukin, who committed the first ever ramming of a ground target on August 5, 1939 during the events on the Khalkhin-Gol River

This delusion supported the continuity of the heroic "ramming traditions", Yuyukin was called Gastello's "mentor". In fact, the name and surname of the navigator M.A.Yuyukin is precisely known - Alexander Morkovkin (he jumped with a parachute just in front of the ram). Gastello was a fellow soldier of Yuyukin.

Output

We won the Great Patriotic War with truth and falsehood, at the cost of the unshakable staunchness of the Soviet people. We won a war where cowards and heroes perished, a war where not everyone was honored, in a war that took our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. We have won and the price of victory is high.

But all that we can here and now is to remember. Remember everyone and everyone, all those who did not return from the battle, who gave their lives for their Fatherland, and whose feat went unnoticed ... For me, Alexander Maslov and Nikolai Gastello - they, like everyone who fought against the Nazis, are heroes of my country, defenders of the Russian land!

Whether the feat was in reality or not, one thing is important - it is impermissible to doubt the courage of the great Soviet people.

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