House of Sergeant Pavlov of soldier's glory. Little island of tranquility

Every year the number of veterans and witnesses of the Second World War becomes less and less. And in just a dozen years they will no longer be alive. Therefore, it is now so important to find out the truth about these distant events in order to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations in the future.

State archives are gradually being declassified, and military historians have access to secret documents, and therefore accurate facts, which make it possible to find out the truth and dispel all speculation that concerns certain moments of military history. The Battle of Stalingrad also has a number of episodes that cause mixed assessments by both the veterans themselves and historians. One of these controversial episodes is the defense of one of the many dilapidated houses in the center of Stalingrad, which became known throughout the world as “Pavlov’s house.”

During the defense of Stalingrad in September 1942, a group of Soviet intelligence officers captured a four-story building in the very center of the city and established a foothold there. The group was led by Sergeant Yakov Pavlov. A little later, machine guns, ammunition and anti-tank rifles were delivered there, and the house turned into an important stronghold of the division's defense.

The history of the defense of this house is as follows: during the bombing of the city, all the buildings turned into ruins, only one four-story house survived. Its upper floors made it possible to observe and keep under fire the part of the city that was occupied by the enemy, so the house itself played an important strategic role in the plans of the Soviet command.

The house was adapted for all-round defense. Firing points were moved outside the building, and underground passages were made to communicate with them. The approaches to the house were mined with anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. It was thanks to the skillful organization of defense that the warriors were able to repel enemy attacks for such a long period of time.

Representatives of 9 nationalities fought a staunch defense until Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive in the Battle of Stalingrad. It would seem, what is unclear here? However, Yuri Beledin, one of the oldest and most experienced journalists in Volgograd, is sure that this house should bear the name of the “house of soldier’s glory”, and not at all “Pavlov’s house”.

The journalist writes about this in his book, which is called “A Shard in the Heart.” According to him, battalion commander A. Zhukov was responsible for the seizure of this house. It was on his orders that company commander I. Naumov sent four soldiers, one of whom was Pavlov. Within 24 hours they repulsed German attacks. The rest of the time, while the defense of the house was being carried out, Lieutenant I. Afanasyev was responsible for everything, who came there along with reinforcements in the form of a machine-gun platoon and a group of armor-piercing men. The total composition of the garrison located there consisted of 29 soldiers.

In addition, on one of the walls of the house, someone made an inscription that P. Demchenko, I. Voronov, A. Anikin and P. Dovzhenko heroically fought in this place. And below it was written that Ya. Pavlov’s house was defended. In the end - five people. Why then, of all those who defended the house, and who were in absolutely equal conditions, only Sergeant Ya. Pavlov was awarded the star of the Hero of the USSR? And besides, most records in military literature indicate that it was under the leadership of Pavlov that the Soviet garrison held the defense for 58 days.

Then another question arises: if it is true that it was not Pavlov who led the defense, why were the other defenders silent? At the same time, the facts indicate that they were not silent at all. This is also evidenced by the correspondence between I. Afanasyev and fellow soldiers. According to the author of the book, there was a certain “political situation” that did not make it possible to change the established idea of the defenders of this house. In addition, I. Afanasyev himself was a man of exceptional decency and modesty. He served in the army until 1951, when he was discharged for health reasons - he was almost completely blind from wounds received during the war. He was awarded several front-line awards, including the medal “For the Defense of Stalingrad.” In the book “House of Soldier's Glory,” he described in detail the time his garrison stayed in the house. But the censor did not let it through, so the author was forced to make some amendments. Thus, Afanasyev cited Pavlov’s words that by the time the reconnaissance group arrived there were Germans in the house. Some time later, evidence was collected that there was in fact no one in the house. Overall, his book is a true story about a difficult time when Soviet soldiers heroically defended their home. Among these fighters was Ya. Pavlov, who was even wounded at that time. No one is trying to belittle his merits in defense, but the authorities were very selective in identifying the defenders of this building - after all, it was not only Pavlov’s house, but first of all the home of a large number of Soviet soldiers - the defenders of Stalingrad.

Breaking through the defense of the house was the main task of the Germans at that time, because this house was like a bone in the throat. German troops tried to break the defense with the help of mortar and artillery shelling, and air bombing, but the Nazis failed to break the defenders. These events went down in the history of the war as a symbol of the perseverance and courage of the soldiers of the Soviet army.

In addition, this house became a symbol of the labor valor of the Soviet people. It was the restoration of Pavlov's house that marked the beginning of the Cherkasovsky movement to restore buildings. Immediately after the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, A.M. Cherkasova’s women’s brigades began restoring the house, and by the end of 1943, more than 820 brigades were working in the city, in 1944 – already 1192, and in 1945 – 1227 brigades.

The history of the Great Patriotic War knows many heroes, whose names became known throughout the world. Nikolai Gastello And Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Alexey Maresyev, Ivan Kozhedub And Alexander Pokryshkin, Alexander Marinesko And Vasily Zaitsev... In this row is the name of the sergeant Yakova Pavlova.

During the Battle of Stalingrad, Pavlov's House became an impregnable fortress on the Nazis' route to the Volga, repelling enemy attacks for 58 days.

Sergeant Yakov Pavlov did not escape the fate of other famous heroes of the Soviet period. In modern times, many rumors, myths, gossip and legends have appeared around his name. They say that Pavlov had nothing to do with the defense of the legendary house. They claim that he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union undeservedly. And finally, one of the most widespread legends about Pavlov says that after the war he became a monk.

What is really behind all these stories?

Peasant son, Red Army soldier

Yakov Fedorovich Pavlov was born on October 4 (17 according to the new style) October 1917 in the village of Krestovaya (now Valdai district of the Novgorod region). His childhood was the same as that of any boy from a peasant family of that era. He graduated from elementary school, became involved in peasant labor, and worked on a collective farm. At the age of 20, in 1938, he was called up for active service in the Red Army. This service was destined to drag on for eight long years.

Pavlov faced the Great Patriotic War as an experienced soldier. The first battles with the Germans near Pavlov took place in the Kovel region as part of the troops of the Southwestern Front. Before the battle of Stalingrad, Pavlov managed to be the commander of a machine gun squad and a gunner.

In 1942, Pavlov was sent to the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 13th Guards Division General Alexander Rodimtsev. As part of the regiment, he took part in the battles on the outskirts of Stalingrad. Then his unit was sent for reorganization to Kamyshin. In September 1942, Senior Sergeant Yakov Pavlov returned to Stalingrad as commander of a machine gun squad. But Pavlov was often sent on reconnaissance missions.

Order: occupy the house

At the end of September, the regiment in which Pavlov served tried to hold back the onslaught of the Germans rushing to the Volga. Ordinary houses were used as strongholds, which turned into fortresses in conditions of street fighting.

Commander of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment, Colonel Ivan Elin drew attention to the four-story residential building of workers of the regional consumer union. Before the war, the building was considered one of the elite in the city.

It is clear that Colonel Yelin was least interested in the previous amenities. The building made it possible to control a significant territory, observe and fire at German positions. Behind the house began a direct road to the Volga, which could not be ceded to the enemy.

The regiment commander gave the order to the commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion, Captain Alexey Zhukov, capture the house and turn it into a stronghold.

The battalion commander wisely decided that there was no point in sending a large group at once, and ordered Pavlov, as well as three other soldiers, to conduct reconnaissance: Corporal Glushchenko, Red Army soldiers Alexandrov And Blackhead.

There are different versions as to when Pavlov's group ended up in the building. The canonical claims that this happened on the night of September 27. According to other sources, Pavlov’s people entered the building a week earlier, on September 20. It is also not completely clear whether the scouts drove the Germans out of there or occupied an empty house.

Impregnable "fortress"

It is reliably known that Pavlov reported on the occupation of the building and requested reinforcements. The additional forces requested by the sergeant arrived on the third day: a machine gun platoon Lieutenant Ivan Afanasyev(seven people with one heavy machine gun), a group of armor piercers senior sergeant Andrei Sobgaida(six men with three anti-tank rifles), four mortar men with two mortars under command Lieutenant Alexey Chernyshenko and three machine gunners.

The Germans did not immediately understand that this house was turning into a very big problem. And Soviet soldiers feverishly worked to strengthen it. The windows were covered with bricks and turned into embrasures, with the help of sappers they set up minefields on the approaches, and dug a trench that led to the rear. Provisions and ammunition were delivered along it, a field telephone cable passed through, and the wounded were evacuated.

For 58 days, the house, which was designated as a “fortress” on German maps, repelled enemy attacks. The defenders of the house established fire cooperation with the neighboring house, which was defended by Lieutenant Zabolotny’s fighters, and with the mill building, where the regiment’s command post was located. This defense system truly became impassable for the Germans.

As already mentioned, on the third day, Lieutenant Ivan Afanasyev arrived at the house with a group of soldiers, who took command of the small garrison of the house from Pavlov. It was Afanasyev who commanded the defense for more than 50 days.

How did the name “Pavlov’s House” come about?

But why then did the house get the name “Pavlov’s house”? The thing is that in a combat situation, for convenience, he was named after the “discoverer”, Sergeant Pavlov. In combat reports they said so: “Pavlov’s house.”

The defenders of the house fought skillfully. Despite the strikes of enemy artillery, aviation, and numerous attacks, during the entire defense of Pavlov’s House, its garrison lost three people killed. The commander of the 62nd Army, Vasily Chuikov, would later write: “This small group, defending one house, destroyed more enemy soldiers than the Nazis lost during the capture of Paris.” This is the great merit of Lieutenant Ivan Afanasyev.

The destroyed house of Pavlov in Stalingrad, in which a group of Soviet soldiers held the defense during the Battle of Stalingrad. During the entire defense of Pavlov’s house (from September 23 to November 25, 1942), there were civilians in the basement; the defense was led by Lieutenant Ivan Afanasyev. Photo: RIA Novosti / Georgy Zelma

At the beginning of November 1942, Afanasyev was wounded, and his participation in the battles for the house ended.

Pavlov fought in the house until the Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive, but after this he was also wounded.

After the hospital, both Afanasyev and Pavlov returned to duty and continued the war.

Ivan Filippovich Afanasyev reached Berlin, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree, three Orders of the Red Star, the medal “For the Defense of Stalingrad”, “For the Liberation of Prague”, the medal “For the Capture of Berlin”, the medal “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War” 1941-1945."

Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov was a gunner and commander of the reconnaissance department in the artillery units of the 3rd Ukrainian and 2nd Belorussian Fronts, in which he reached Stettin, and was awarded two Orders of the Red Star and many medals.

Afanasyev Ivan Filippovich, hero of the Battle of Stalingrad, lieutenant, headed the defense of Pavlov's House. Photo: RIA Novosti

Commander in the shadows: the fate of Lieutenant Afanasyev

Immediately after the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, there was no mass representation of the participants in the defense of Pavlov’s House, although the front-line press wrote about this episode. Moreover, the wounded Lieutenant Afanasyev, the commander of the defense of the house, completely dropped out of sight of military correspondents.

People remembered Pavlov after the war. In June 1945, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was also given the shoulder straps of a lieutenant.

What motivated the big bosses? Obviously, a simple formula: since “Pavlov’s House”, then he is the main hero of the defense. In addition, from the point of view of propaganda, not an officer, but a sergeant, who came from a peasant family, seemed almost an exemplary hero.

Lieutenant Afanasyev was called by everyone who knew him a man of rare modesty. Therefore, he did not go to the authorities and seek recognition of his merits.

At the same time, the relationship between Afanasyev and Pavlov after the war was not easy. Or rather, there were none at all. At the same time, Afanasyev also cannot be called forgotten and unknown. After the war, he lived in Stalingrad, wrote memoirs, met with comrades in arms, and spoke in the press. In 1967, at the opening of the monument-ensemble on Mamayev Kurgan, he accompanied a torch with an eternal flame from the Square of Fallen Fighters to Mamayev Kurgan. In 1970, Ivan Afanasyev, together with two other famous war heroes, Konstantin Nedorubov and Vasily Zaitsev, laid a capsule with a message to descendants, which should be opened on the centenary of the Victory, May 9, 2045.

Veteran of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, participant in the defense of Pavlov’s House during the Battle of Stalingrad, Ivan Filippovich Afanasyev. Photo: RIA Novosti / Yu. Evsyukov

Ivan Afanasyev died in August 1975. He was buried in the central cemetery of Volgograd. At the same time, his will was not fulfilled, in which Afanasyev asked to bury himself on Mamayev Kurgan, next to those who fell in the battles for Stalingrad. The last will of the commander of the Pavlov House garrison was carried out in 2013.

Hero at party work

Yakov Pavlov was demobilized in 1946 and returned to the Novgorod region. The illustrious hero received a higher education and began to pursue a career along the party line, and was secretary of the district committee. Pavlov was elected three times as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR from the Novgorod region, and was awarded the Orders of Lenin and the October Revolution. In 1980, Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the Hero City of Volgograd.”

Yakov Pavlov died on September 26, 1981. He was buried on the Alley of Heroes of the Western Cemetery of Veliky Novgorod.

It is impossible to say that Yakov Pavlov is a hero invented by agitprop, although in life everything was somewhat different from what was later written in the books.

Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, Hero of the Soviet Union, defender of Stalingrad, talks with pioneers. Photo: RIA Novosti / Rudolf Alfimov

Another Pavlov from Stalingrad: how coincidences gave rise to a legend

But we have not yet touched upon the question of why the story of Sergeant Pavlov’s “monasticism” suddenly surfaced.

Archimandrite Kirill, confessor of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, one of the most revered elders of the church, passed away quite recently. He died on February 20, 2017 at the age of 97.

This man was identified with Sergeant Pavlov, who defended the famous house.

Elder Kirill, who became a monk in 1954, did not like small talk, and therefore did not refute the rumors circulating around him. And in the nineties, some journalists began to directly state: yes, this is the same Sergeant Pavlov.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that those who knew something about the worldly life of Elder Kirill claimed that he actually fought in Stalingrad with the rank of sergeant.

The most amazing thing is that this is the pure truth. Although the grave on the Alley of Heroes in Novgorod testified that the sergeant from the “House of Pavlov” lay there.

Only upon careful study of the biographies does it become clear that we are talking about namesakes. Elder Kirill in the world was Ivan Dmitrievich Pavlov. He is two years younger than his namesake, but their fate is indeed very similar. Ivan Pavlov served in the Red Army since 1939, went through the entire war, fought in Stalingrad, and ended the battle in Austria. Ivan Pavlov, like Yakov, was demobilized in 1946, also while being a lieutenant.

Thus, despite all the similarities in the military biographies, these are different people with different post-war fates. And the man whose name is associated with the legendary house in Stalingrad did not become a monk.

Pavlov's house in Volgograd. Photo from www.wikipedia.org

It just so happened that over the course of the year, a private (by war standards) defense facility and its defenders became the object of attention of two creative teams at once. Director Sergei Ursulyak directed the wonderful multi-part television film “Life and Fate” based on the novel of the same name by Vasily Grossman. Its premiere took place in October 2012. And in February of this year, the TV movie is shown on the Kultura TV channel. As for the blockbuster “Stalingrad” by Fyodor Bondarchuk, which was released last fall, this is a completely different creation, with a different concept and approach. It is hardly worth dwelling on its artistic merits and fidelity to historical truth (or rather, the lack thereof). This has been discussed plenty, including in the very sensible publication “Stalingrad without Stalingrad” (“NVO” No. 37, 10/11/13).

Both in Grossman’s novel, and in its television version, and in Bondarchuk’s film, the events that took place in one of the strongholds of the city’s defense are shown - albeit in different volumes, albeit indirectly. But literature and cinema are one thing, and life is another. Or more precisely, history.

THE FORTRESS DOES NOT SURRENDER TO THE ENEMY

In September 1942, fierce battles broke out in the streets and squares of the central and northern parts of Stalingrad. “A fight in the city is a special fight. Here the issue is decided not by strength, but by skill, dexterity, resourcefulness and surprise. City buildings, like breakwaters, cut the battle formations of the advancing enemy and directed his forces along the streets. Therefore, we held tightly to particularly strong buildings and created a few garrisons in them, capable of conducting an all-round defense in the event of encirclement. Particularly strong buildings helped us create strong points from which the city’s defenders mowed down the advancing fascists with machine gun and machine gun fire,” the commander of the legendary 62nd Army, General Vasily Chuikov, later noted.

Unparalleled in world history in terms of scale and ferocity, the Battle of Stalingrad, which became a turning point in the entire Second World War, ended victoriously on February 2, 1943. But street fighting continued in Stalingrad until the end of the battle on the banks of the Volga.

One of the strongholds, the importance of which was spoken by the commander of Army 62, was the legendary Pavlov’s House. Its end wall overlooked the January 9 Square (later Lenin Square). The 42nd Regiment of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, which joined the 62nd Army in September 1942 (divisional commander General Alexander Rodimtsev), operated at this line. The house occupied an important place in the defense system of Rodimtsev’s guards on the approaches to the Volga. It was a four-story brick building. However, he had a very important tactical advantage: from there he controlled the entire surrounding area. It was possible to observe and fire at the part of the city occupied by the enemy by that time: up to 1 km to the west, and even more to the north and south. But the main thing is that from here the paths of a possible German breakthrough to the Volga were visible: it was just a stone’s throw away. Intense fighting here continued for more than two months.

The tactical significance of the house was correctly assessed by the commander of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment, Colonel Ivan Elin. He ordered the commander of the 3rd Rifle Battalion, Captain Alexei Zhukov, to seize the house and turn it into a stronghold. On September 20, 1942, soldiers from the squad led by Sergeant Yakov Pavlov made their way there. And on the third day, reinforcements arrived: a machine-gun platoon of Lieutenant Ivan Afanasyev (seven people with one heavy machine gun), a group of armor-piercing soldiers of Senior Sergeant Andrei Sobgaida (six people with three anti-tank rifles), four mortar men with two mortars under the command of Lieutenant Alexei Chernyshenko and three machine gunners. Lieutenant Ivan Afanasyev was appointed commander of this group.

The Nazis conducted massive artillery and mortar fire on the house almost all the time, carried out air strikes on it, and continuously attacked. But the garrison of the “fortress” - this is how Pavlov’s house was marked on the headquarters map of the commander of the 6th German Army, Paulus - skillfully prepared it for all-round defense. The fighters fired from different places through embrasures, holes in bricked-up windows and holes in the walls. When the enemy tried to approach the building, he was met by dense machine-gun fire from all firing points. The garrison steadfastly repelled enemy attacks and inflicted significant losses on the Nazis. And most importantly, in operational and tactical terms, the defenders of the house did not allow the enemy to break through to the Volga in this area.

At the same time, Lieutenants Afanasyev, Chernyshenko and Sergeant Pavlov established fire cooperation with strong points in neighboring buildings - in the house defended by the soldiers of Lieutenant Nikolai Zabolotny, and in the mill building, where the command post of the 42nd Infantry Regiment was located. The interaction was facilitated by the fact that an observation post was equipped on the third floor of Pavlov’s house, which the Nazis were never able to suppress. “A small group, defending one house, destroyed more enemy soldiers than the Nazis lost during the capture of Paris,” noted Army 62 commander Vasily Chuikov.

INTERNATIONAL SQUAD

DEFENDERS

Pavlov's house was defended by fighters of different nationalities - Russians Pavlov, Alexandrov and Afanasyev, Ukrainians Sobgaida and Glushchenko, Georgians Mosiashvili and Stepanoshvili, Uzbek Turganov, Kazakh Murzaev, Abkhaz Sukhba, Tajik Turdyev, Tatar Romazanov. According to official data - 24 fighters. But in reality - up to 30. Some dropped out due to injury, some died, but they were replaced. One way or another, Sergeant Pavlov (he was born on October 17, 1917 in Valdai, Novgorod region) celebrated his 25th birthday within the walls of “his” home together with his military friends. True, nothing has been written about this anywhere, and Yakov Fedotovich himself and his military friends preferred to remain silent on this matter.

As a result of continuous shelling, the building was seriously damaged. One end wall was almost completely destroyed. To avoid losses from the rubble, some of the firepower was moved outside the building by order of the regiment commander. But the defenders of the House of Sergeant Pavlov, the House of Lieutenant Zabolotny and the mill, turned into strong points, continued to firmly hold the defense, despite the fierce attacks of the enemy.

One cannot help but ask: how were Sergeant Pavlov’s fellow soldiers not only able to survive in the fiery hell, but also to defend themselves effectively? Firstly, not only Lieutenant Afanasyev, but also Sergeant Pavlov were experienced fighters. Yakov Pavlov has been in the Red Army since 1938, and this is a considerable period of time. Before Stalingrad, he was the commander of a machine gun squad and a gunner. So he has plenty of experience. Secondly, the reserve positions they equipped helped the fighters a lot. In front of the house there was a cemented fuel warehouse; an underground passage was dug to it. And about 30 meters from the house there was a hatch for a water supply tunnel, to which an underground passage was also made. It brought ammunition and meager supplies of food to the defenders of the house.

During shelling, everyone, except observers and combat guards, went down to shelters. This included civilians in the basements who, for various reasons, could not be evacuated immediately. The shelling stopped, and the entire small garrison was again in its positions in the house, again firing at the enemy.

The garrison of the house held the defense for 58 days and nights. The soldiers left it on November 24, when the regiment, along with other units, launched a counteroffensive. All of them were awarded government awards. And Sergeant Pavlov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. True, after the war - by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 27, 1945 - after he had joined the party by that time.

For the sake of historical truth, we note that most of the time the defense of the outpost house was led by Lieutenant Afanasyev. But he was not awarded the title of Hero. In addition, Ivan Filippovich was a man of exceptional modesty and never emphasized his merits. And “at the top” they decided to promote to a high rank the junior commander, who, together with his fighters, was the first to break through to the house and take up defense there. After the fighting, someone made a corresponding inscription on the wall of the building. Military leaders and war correspondents saw her. The object was initially listed under the name “Pavlov’s House” in combat reports. One way or another, the building on January 9 Square went down in history as Pavlov’s House. Yakov Fedotovich himself, despite being wounded, fought with dignity even after Stalingrad - already as an artilleryman. He ended the war on the Oder wearing the epaulets of a foreman. Later he was awarded the rank of officer.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PARTICIPANTS

DEFENSE OF STALINGRAD

Now in the hero city there are about 8 thousand participants of the Great Patriotic War, of which 1200 were direct participants in the Battle of Stalingrad, as well as 3420 combat veterans. Yakov Pavlov could rightfully be on this list - he could have stayed in the restored city that he defended. He was very sociable by nature; he met many times with residents who survived the war and restored it from the ruins. Yakov Fedotovich lived with the concerns and interests of the city on the Volga, participated in events for patriotic education.

The legendary Pavlov House in the city became the first building to be restored. And he was the first to be telephoned. Moreover, some of the apartments there were given to those who came to restore Stalingrad from all over the country. Not only Yakov Pavlov, but also other surviving defenders of the house that went down in history under his name, have always been the most dear guests of the townspeople. In 1980, Yakov Fedotovich was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the Hero City of Volgograd.” But...

After demobilization in August 1946, he returned to his native Novgorod region. I was at work in party bodies in the city of Valdai. Received higher education. Three times he was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR from the Novgorod region. Peaceful ones were also added to his military awards: the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, medals.

Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov passed away in 1981 - the consequences of front-line wounds affected him. But it just so happened that there were many legends and myths around the “House of Sergeant Pavlov,” which went down in history, and itself. Sometimes their echoes can be heard even now. So, for many years, rumors said that Yakov Pavlov did not die at all, but took monastic vows and became Archimandrite Kirill. But at the same time, he allegedly asked me to convey that he was no longer alive.

Is it so? The situation was clarified by employees of the Volgograd State Panorama Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad. And what? Father Kirill in the world really was... Pavlov. And he really took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. There was just a problem with the name - Ivan. Moreover, Yakov and Ivan Pavlov were sergeants during the Battle of the Volga, both ended the war as junior lieutenants. During the initial period of the war, Ivan Pavlov served in the Far East, and in October 1941, as part of his unit, he arrived at the Volkhov Front. And then - Stalingrad. In 1942 he was wounded twice. But he survived. When the fighting in Stalingrad subsided, Ivan accidentally found a Gospel burned by fire among the rubble. He considered this a sign from above, and Ivan’s war-scarred heart suggested: keep the volume with you!

In the ranks of the tank corps, Ivan Pavlov fought through Romania, Hungary and Austria. And everywhere with him in his duffel bag was a burnt Stalingrad church book. Demobilized in 1946, he went to Moscow. At Yelokhovsky Cathedral I asked: how to become a priest? And as he was, in military uniform, he went to enter the theological seminary. They say that many years later, Archimandrite Kirill was summoned to the military registration and enlistment office of the town of Sergiev Posad near Moscow and asked what to report “up” about the defender of Stalingrad, Sergeant Pavlov. Kirill asked to be told that he was no longer alive.

But this is not the end of our story. During the search, the staff of the panorama museum (it is located just opposite the Pavlov House, across Sovetskaya Street, and I visited there many times as a student, since I studied at a nearby university) managed to establish the following. Among the participants in the Battle of Stalingrad were three Pavlovs, who became Heroes of the Soviet Union. In addition to Yakov Fedotovich, these are tanker captain Sergei Mikhailovich Pavlov and guard infantryman senior sergeant Dmitry Ivanovich Pavlov. Russia rests on the Pavlovs and Afanasyevs, as well as on the Ivanovs and Petrovs.

Volgograd–Moscow

February 28th, 2018 , 12:00 pm

If you find yourself in Volgograd, then you definitely need to visit three places: Mamaev kurgan, Paulus Bunker in the Central Department Store And Panorama Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad. I read a lot about the Battle of Stalingrad and watched films. A variety of books and films. “Stalingrad” by Yuri Ozerov is impossible to watch, the movie is about nothing, solid Soviet propaganda. The book by German war correspondent Heinz Schröter about the Battle of Stalingrad, written by him in 1943, seemed very interesting. By the way, the book, conceived as a propaganda tool capable of raising the spirit of the German army, was banned in Germany “for its defeatist mood” and was published only in 1948. It was completely unusual to look towards Stalingrad through the eyes of German soldiers. And oddly enough, it was precisely the meticulous analytical German assessment of military operations that showed the incredible feat that the Russian people - the military and the city residents - accomplished.

STALINGRAD- the same stone on which the invincible, powerful German military machine literally broke its teeth.
STALINGRAD- that sacred point that turned the tide of the war.
STALINGRAD- the city of Heroes in the most literal sense.

From the book "Stalingrad" by Heinz Schroter
“In Stalingrad there were battles for every house, for metallurgical plants, factories, hangars, shipping canals, streets, squares, gardens, walls.”
“Resistance arose almost out of nowhere. At the surviving factories, the last tanks were being assembled, the armories were empty, everyone who was able to hold a weapon in their hands was armed: Volga steamships, the fleet, workers of military factories, teenagers.”“The dive bombers delivered their iron blows to the ruins of staunchly defended bridgeheads.”

“The basements of houses and the vaults of workshops were equipped by the enemies as dugouts and strongholds. Danger lurked at every step, snipers were hiding behind every ruin, but sewerage structures for wastewater posed a special danger - they approached the Volga and were used by the Soviet command to supply reserves to them. Often, Russians suddenly appeared behind the advanced German detachments, and no one could understand how they got there. Later everything became clear, so the channels in the places where the drain covers were located were barricaded with steel beams.”
*It is interesting that the Germans describe houses for which mortal battles were fought not by numbers, but by color, because the German love of numbers has become meaningless.

“The sapper battalion lay down in front of the pharmacy and the red house. These strongholds were equipped for defense in such a way that it was impossible to take them.”

“The advance of the engineer battalions moved forward, but stopped in front of the so-called white house. The houses in question were piles of rubbish, but there were battles for them too.”
*Just imagine how many such “red and white houses” there were in Stalingrad...

I found myself in Volgograd at the very beginning of February, when they celebrated the next anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. On this day I went to Panorama Museum, which is located on the high bank of the Volga embankment (Chuikova St., 47). I chose the day very well, because on the site in front of the museum I found a concert, performances by our guys, and a gala event dedicated to the memorable date.

I didn’t take any photos inside the museum, it was dark and I doubt I would have gotten good photos without a flash. But the museum is very interesting. First of all, a circular panorama “The defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad.” As Wiki describes it: “Panorama “Battle of Stalingrad” is a canvas measuring 16x120 m, with an area of about 2000 m² and 1000 m² of subject matter. The plot is the final stage of the Battle of Stalingrad - Operation Ring. The canvas shows the connection on January 26, 1943 of the 21st and 62nd armies of the Don Front on the western slope of Mamayev Kurgan, which led to the dissection of the encircled German group into two parts.” In addition to the panorama (located on the highest floor of the museum, in the Rotunda) there are 4 dioramas (small panoramas on the ground floor).
Weapons, Soviet and German, awards, personal items and clothing, models, photographs, portraits. You definitely need to take a tour guide. In my case, this could not be done, due to the fact that a solemn ceremony was taking place in the Triumphal Hall, which was attended by veterans, military personnel, young army guys, and the museum was flooded with a large number of guests.

(with photo yarowind

(with photo kerrangjke

(With) muph

Behind the Panorama Museum there is a dilapidated red brick building - Gergard's Mill (Grudinin's Mill). The building became one of the important defense centers of the city. Again, turning to Wiki we find out that “The mill was semi-surrounded for 58 days, and during these days it withstood numerous hits from aerial bombs and shells. These damages are visible even now - literally every square meter of the external walls is cut by shells, bullets and shrapnel, reinforced concrete beams on the roof are broken by direct hits from aerial bombs. The sides of the building indicate varying intensities of mortar and artillery fire.”

A copy of the sculpture is now installed nearby "Dancing Children". For Soviet Russia, this was a fairly typical sculpture - pioneers with red ties (3 girls and three boys) lead a friendly round dance around the fountain. But the children’s figures, damaged by bullets and shell fragments, look especially piercing and defenseless.

Opposite the Panorama Museum across the road is Pavlov's House.
I’ll turn to Wikipedia again so as not to repeat it: “Pavlov’s House is a 4-story residential building in which a group of Soviet soldiers heroically held the defense for 58 days during the Battle of Stalingrad. Some historians believe that the defense was led by senior sergeant Ya. F. Pavlov, who took command of the squad from senior lieutenant I. F. Afanasyev, who was wounded at the beginning of the battles. The Germans organized attacks several times a day. Every time soldiers or tanks tried to get close to the house, I.F. Afanasyev and his comrades met them with heavy fire from the basement, windows and roof. During the entire defense of Pavlov’s house (from September 23 to November 25, 1942), there were civilians in the basement until the Soviet troops launched a counterattack.”

I would like to return to the demonstration performances of our guys again. And I will quote the text of Vitaly Rogozin dervishv about hand-to-hand combat, which I liked incredibly.
...
Hand-to-hand combat - window dressing or a deadly weapon?
Experts continue to debate whether soldiers need hand-to-hand combat in modern warfare. And if necessary, then in what volume and with what technical arsenal? And what martial arts are best suited for this? No matter how much analysts argue, hand-to-hand combat still has its place in training programs. The other day I looked at the hand-to-hand combat skills of the cadets of the Moscow Higher Combined Arms Command School.

There is a joke among the troops: “To engage in hand-to-hand combat, a soldier needs to remain in his shorts, find a flat area and a second idiot like him.” And this joke contains considerable wisdom, tested in hundreds of wars. After all, even in the era before the advent of firearms, hand-to-hand combat was not a “major discipline.” The main focus in a soldier's combat training was on his ability to wield a weapon and not bring the battle to hand-to-hand combat.
For example, in China, where the traditions of martial arts go back thousands of years, the training of soldiers for hand-to-hand combat was systematized only during the Ming Dynasty, when General Qi Jiguang selected and published his “32 fist methods” for training troops.
Only 32 techniques from the huge variety of Chinese Wushu! But the most effective and easiest to learn.
According to Western press reports, the entire hand-to-hand combat course of the American Delta consists of 30 techniques.

1 . The soldier’s task, since he cannot, for some reason, use a weapon, is to destroy the enemy or disarm and immobilize him as soon as possible. And you don’t need to know many techniques to do this. It is important to master them; they must be firmly embedded in the subconscious and muscle memory.
2. The most important thing for a fighter is the ability to use personal weapons and equipment in hand-to-hand combat.
3. Let's start with the machine gun. The blows are delivered with a bayonet, barrel, butt, and magazine.
Thus, even without ammunition, the machine gun remains a formidable weapon in close combat.
In Kadochnikov’s system, which is still taught in some places in domestic law enforcement agencies, the machine gun is even used to immobilize and escort a prisoner.
4. Hand-to-hand combat techniques with a knife are characterized by fast, economical and generally short and low-amplitude movements.
5. The targets for striking are mainly the limbs and neck of the enemy, since, firstly, they contain large blood vessels located close to the surface of the body. Secondly, hitting the opponent’s hands sharply reduces his ability to continue the fight (a hit to the neck, for obvious reasons, practically eliminates this). Thirdly, the torso can be protected by body armor.
6. A soldier must still be able to throw a knife without missing from any position. But he only does this when he has no other choice, because the knife is designed to cut and stab and should lie firmly in the hand, and not move in space, leaving the owner without the last weapon.
7. A terrible weapon in the hands of a soldier is a small sapper blade. The radius of destruction and the length of the cutting edge are much greater than that of any knife. But in these exhibition battles it was not used, and in vain.
8. Confronting an armed enemy while unarmed is also a necessary skill.
9. But taking away a weapon from an enemy is not so easy.
10. Real knives and pistols bring the training situation closer to a combat situation, strengthening psychological resistance to weapons in the hands of the opponent.
11. The fighter still needs the skills to silently destroy sentries and capture enemy troops.
12. It is important for any intelligence officer to be able to search, bind and escort captured or detained persons.
13. A soldier of army units in hand-to-hand combat must kill the enemy in the shortest possible period of time and continue completing the assigned task.
14. The targets for his blows are the temples, eyes, throat, base of the skull, heart (a competent, accurate blow to the heart area leads to its stop). Hit to the groin and knee joints are good as “relaxers”.
15 . The stick, in turn, is the most ancient human weapon.
16 . The methods of its use have been refined over thousands of years and can be adopted for service without any modification or adaptation.
17 . Even if you never have to use hand-to-hand combat skills, it is better to know them and be able to use them.
18. Crunch and cut in half.

Posts tagged “Volgograd”:

Eyewitness testimony is usually biased, official reports must also be treated rationally and critically, and politically biased versions are generally like Putin’s obviously unjust “Basmanny court.” Only a trans-party, trans-confessional professional, guided by the highest goal and meaning of man-made self-sacrifice and, accordingly, the priority of the vector of exalting subjectivity-freedom in a person, society and humanity, is able to take into his horizons all the available facts, systematize them and evaluate them. The Soviet period, the Great Patriotic War, is especially distorted by apologetics on the one hand and blasphemy on the other, but it is necessary to reveal what really happened (according to the behest of the wise Leopold von Ranke - wie es eigentlich gewesen). This is necessary for the resurrection of the dead at the Last Judgment, and the collected information must take its place in the Panlog system (access - panlog.com). In my opinion, the creators of the wonderful portal dedicated to Russian history, “History of the State,” are trying to work in this vein. The series of video programs “Seekers” posted on this portal is very impressive; the presenters of the program are Doctor of Historical Sciences Valery Aleksandrovich Ivanov-Tagansky and researcher Andrei I. Now I watched their story “Legendary Redoubt” on the Russian historical TV channel “365 Days TV”:

“Autumn 1942. Stalingrad. In no man's land in the center of the city, a handful of our fighters capture the ruins of a residential building. And for two months he fought off fierce attacks from the Germans. The house was like a bone in their throat, but they could not break the defenders. The defense of this building went down in the history of the Great Patriotic War as a symbol of the courage and perseverance of Soviet soldiers. Their list opens with Hero of the Soviet Union Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, who has long been considered the leader of the defense. And after his name this house in Volgograd is still called Pavlov’s House. The “seekers” managed to establish that in fact the defense of the legendary fortress house was actually commanded by a completely different person / Lieutenant Ivan Filippovich Afanasyev /. But this did not make Yakov Pavlov’s participation in the defense any less heroic. It’s just that the real story turned out to be more complex and interesting than what Soviet ideologists came up with. “The “seekers” also managed to establish the names of two more fighters who fought from beginning to end along with their comrades, but by a whim of fate remained unknown.”

Wikipedia says quite objectively - “A detailed analysis of the events surrounding the defense of Pavlov’s House was presented in the investigation of the Seekers program.” Thus, it was possible to establish that, in fact, Guard Sergeant Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov, under the influence of the Soviet propaganda machine, was appointed to the role of the only heroic defender of this house. He really fought heroically in Stalingrad, but he led the defense of the house, which went down in history as Pavlov’s House, by a completely different person - Lieutenant Ivan Filippovich Afanasyev. In addition, about 20 more fighters fought heroically in the house. But besides Pavlov, no one was awarded the Hero Star. All the rest, along with another 700,000 people, were awarded a medal for the defense of Stalingrad. On the 25th, a soldier from Kalmykia, Gor Khokholov, was removed from the list of fighters after the war. Only 62 years later, justice prevailed and his memory was restored. But, as it turned out, not all of it. Even with Khokholov, the list of “garrison” was incomplete. It is very significant that Pavlov’s House was defended by soldiers of nine nationalities of the USSR; I was especially impressed in the film “Legendary Redoubt” by the story about the Uzbek Turganov, who has survived to this day, who vowed to give birth to as many sons as his comrades died in the battle for Stalingrad, and performed it, and the already old fighter recalls the days gone by, surrounded by 78 grandchildren. “Lenin's national policy” adequately withstood the test of battle; military brotherhood was forged in the trenches.

“The streets and squares of the city turned into an arena of bloody battles, which did not subside until the end of the battle. The 42nd Regiment of the 13th Guards Rifle Division operated in the area of the Ninth January Square. Intense fighting here continued for more than two months. Stone buildings - House of Sergeant Ya. f. Pavlova, the House of Lieutenant N.E. Zabolotny and mill No. 4, turned by the guards into strongholds, they staunchly held them, despite the fierce attacks of the enemy.

“Pavlov’s House” or, as it is popularly called, “House of Soldier’s Glory” is a brick building that occupied a dominant position over the surrounding area. From here it was possible to observe and fire at the enemy-occupied part of the city to the west up to 1 km, and to the north and south - even further. Correctly assessing its tactical significance, the commander of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment, Colonel I.P. Elin, ordered the commander of the 3rd Rifle Battalion, Captain A.E. Zhukov, to seize the house and turn it into a stronghold.

This task was completed by soldiers of the 7th Infantry Company, commanded by Senior Lieutenant I.P. Naumov. On September 20, 1942, Sergeant Ya. F. Pavlov and his squad entered the house, and then reinforcements arrived: a machine-gun platoon of Lieutenant I. F. Afanasyev (seven people with one heavy machine gun), a group of armor-piercing men of Senior Sergeant A. A. Sabgaida (6 a man with three anti-tank guns), four mortar men with two 50-mm mortars under the command of Lieutenant A. N. Chernushenko and three machine gunners. I. F. Afanasyev was appointed commander of this group.

It is characteristic that this house was defended by representatives of many peoples of our country - Russians Pavlov, Alexandrov and Afanasyev, Ukrainians Sabgaida and Glushchenko, Georgians Mosiashvili and Stepanoshvili, Uzbek Turganov, Kazakh Murzaev, Abkhazian Sukhba, Tajik Turdyev, Tatar Romazanov.

The building was destroyed by enemy aircraft and mortar fire. To avoid losses from the rubble, on the instructions of the regiment commander, part of the firepower was moved outside the building. The walls and windows, lined with bricks, had embrasures punched through them, the presence of which made it possible to fire from different places. The house was adapted for all-round defense.

There was an observation post on the third floor of the building. When the Nazis tried to approach him, they were met with destructive machine-gun fire from all points. The garrison of the house interacted with the fire weapons of the strongholds in Zabolotny’s house and in the mill building.

The Nazis subjected the house to crushing artillery and mortar fire, bombed it from the air, and continuously attacked, but its defenders steadfastly repelled countless enemy attacks, inflicted losses on him and did not allow the Nazis to break through to the Volga in this area. “This small group,” notes V.I. Chuikov, “defending one house, destroyed more enemy soldiers than the Nazis lost during the capture of Paris.”

Volgograd resident Vitaly Korovin writes on May 8, 2007:

“The next anniversary of our country’s Victory in the Great Patriotic War is approaching. Every year there are fewer and fewer veterans left - living witnesses of that formidable and tragic era for all mankind. Another 10-15 years will pass and there will be no living bearers of the memory of the war left - the Second World War will finally fade into history. And here we - descendants - need to have time to find out the whole truth about those events, so that in the future there will be no various rumors and misunderstandings.

State archives are gradually being declassified, more and more we are gaining access to various documents, and therefore dry facts that tell the truth and dispel the “fog” that hides some moments of history during the Second World War.

There were also episodes in the Battle of Stalingrad that caused various mixed assessments by historians, and even the veterans themselves. One of these episodes is the defense by Soviet soldiers of one dilapidated house in the center of Stalingrad, which became known throughout the world as “Pavlov’s House.”

It would seem that everything is clear, this episode of the Battle of Stalingrad is known to everyone. However, according to one of the oldest journalists in Volgograd, the famous poet and publicist Yuri Beledin, this house should be called not “Pavlov’s House,” but “House of Soldier’s Glory.” This is what he writes about this in his book, published just the other day, “A Shard in the Heart”:

“...And he answered on behalf of I.P. Elina (commander of the 42nd regiment of the 13th division - author's note) for the entire epic with the house... battalion commander A.E. Zhukov. He ordered the company commander, senior lieutenant I.I. Naumov, send four scouts there, one of whom was Ya.F. Pavlov. And for a day they scared away the Germans who had come to their senses. For the remaining 57 days, A.E. was constantly responsible for the defense of the house. Zhukov, who came there with a machine-gun platoon and a group of armor-piercing soldiers, Lieutenant I.F. Afanasiev. Those killed and wounded during the battles, as Alexey Efimovich Zhukov personally told me about, were replaced regularly. In total, the garrison numbered 29 people.

And a photograph taken in 1943 and included in several guidebooks shows a fragment of a wall on which someone had written: “Here guardsmen Ilya Voronov, Pavel Demchenko, Alexey Anikin, Pavel Dovzhenko fought heroically with the enemy.” And below - much larger: “This house was defended by the guards. Sergeant Yakov Fedorovich Pavlov." And - a huge exclamation point... Only five in total. Who, hot on the heels, began to correct history? Why was the purely technical designation “Pavlov’s House” (as it was called for brevity on staff maps - author’s note) immediately transferred to the category of personal categories? And why did Yakov Fedotovich himself, when meeting with a team of Cherkasovka women restoring the house, not stop the praise? The incense was already making his head spin.”

In a word, in the end, of all the defenders of the “House of Pavlov”, who, as we see, were in equal conditions, only Guard Sergeant Yakov Pavlov received the star of the Hero of the USSR. In addition, in the overwhelming majority of literature describing this episode of the Battle of Stalingrad, we come across only the following words: “Having captured one of the houses and improved its defense, a garrison of 24 people under the command of Sergeant Yakov Pavlov held it for 58 days and did not give it to the enemy "

Yuri Mikhailovich Beledin fundamentally disagrees with this. In his book, he cites many facts - letters, interviews, memoirs, as well as a reprint version of the book by the garrison commander himself, who defended this house at 61 Penzenskaya Street, located on the “9th January Square” (this is the address the house had in the pre-war time) Ivan Filippovich Afanasyev. And all these facts indicate that the name “Pavlov’s House” is not fair. And rightly, in the opinion of Beledin and in the opinion of many veterans, the name “House of Soldiers’ Glory”.

But why were the other defenders of the house silent? No, they were not silent. And this is evidenced by the correspondence of fellow soldiers with Ivan Afanasyev presented in the book “A Shard in the Heart”. However, Yuri Beledin believes, most likely, some kind of “political conjuncture” did not allow changing established ideas about the defense and the defenders themselves of this Stalingrad house. In addition, Ivan Afanasyev himself was a man of exceptional modesty and decency. He served in the Soviet army until 1951 and was discharged for health reasons - due to injuries received during the war, he was almost completely blind. He had several front-line awards, including the medal “For the Defense of Stalingrad.” Since 1958 he lived in Stalingrad. In his book “House of Soldier's Glory” (published 3 times, the last one in 1970), he described in detail all the days his garrison stayed in the house. However, for censorship reasons, the book was still “tweaked”. In particular, Afanasyev, under pressure from censorship, was forced to retell the words of Sergeant Pavlov that there were Germans in the house they occupied. Later, evidence was collected, including from civilians who were hiding in the basements of the house from the bombing, that before the arrival of four Soviet intelligence officers, one of whom was Yakov Pavlov, there were no enemies in the house. Also, fragments telling about two, as Afanasyev writes, “cowards plotting to desert” were cut out from Afanasyev’s text. But overall, his book is a true story about those two difficult autumn months of 1942, when our soldiers heroically held the house. Yakov Pavlov fought and was wounded among them. No one ever belittled his merits in defending the house. But the authorities very selectively treated the defenders of this legendary Stalingrad house - it was not only the house of Sergeant Pavlov’s guard, it was the house of many Soviet soldiers. It truly became the “House of Soldiers’ Glory.”

At the presentation of the book “A Splinter in the Heart,” Yuri Mikhailovich Beledin presented one copy of it to me. While signing the book, he addressed me with the words: “a colleague and, I hope, a like-minded person.” Like-minded person? Frankly, at first I couldn’t understand why it was necessary to rip up the past and look for some kind of, as it seemed to me then, amorphous justice? After all, in our country, and especially in Volgograd, we have always treated and still treat the memory of the Great Patriotic War with respect. We have erected many monuments, museums, memorials... But after reading “A Shard in the Heart,” I realized that we need this truth, reasoned and documented. In the end, you can look at this question from this point of view: What if tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, some Varangian teachers come to us, as they did in the 90s of the last century, and start using this semi-secret historical fog , teach us that there was, in general, no Great Patriotic War, that we, Russians, were the same occupiers as the Germans, and that in fact, Nazi Germany was defeated by the Americans and the British. There are already many examples of such an attitude towards history in the world - take, for example, the legalized Estonian marches of former SS men, the scandalous transfer of the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn. What about the world, and what about Europe, which also suffered from the Nazis? And for some reason everyone is silent.

So, to resist this to the end, we need solid facts and documents. It’s time to put not dots, but solid dots in the history of the Great Patriotic War.”

Maxim (guest)
Yes, the truth about that war is needed like air. Otherwise, soon our children will think that the Americans won World War II.

Lobotomy
By the way, “Pavlov’s house” is mentioned in the history of Western countries, and among the many people around the world interested in the Battle of Stalingrad, this important episode is widely known. Even in the computer game Call of Duty there is a mission to defend Pavlov’s House, it is already Millions of players around the world passed through it - both our children and American ones.

In 1948, the Stalingrad publishing house published a book by Pavlov himself, then a junior lieutenant. It also did not mention all the defenders of the house. Only seven people are named by name. However, Sukba is here too! In 1944, the war brought him to Western Belarus. What happened to him in those parts is unclear, but after some time his name appeared on the lists of Vlasovites from the so-called ROA (Russian Liberation Army). According to the papers, it turns out that he did not directly participate in battles against his own people, but was on guard duty. But this was enough for the soldier’s name to disappear from the history of the Battle of Stalingrad. Surely impregnable, like “Pavlov’s house,” the archives also keep the secret of how the hero of Stalingrad ended up “on the other side” of the front. Most likely, Alexey was captured. Perhaps, by enrolling in the ROA, he wanted to save a life. But at that time they did not stand on ceremony with such people. Here is the sniper Khokholov Gorya Badmaevich - an ethnic Kalmyk, therefore after the war, when Kalmyks were deported for resisting the Stalinist regime, he was also deleted from the list of defenders of the House of Pavlov. The official version also says nothing about the nurse and two local girls who were among the defenders of Pavlov’s House until the last day.

Here is another article about Pavlov's House and its underrated heroes - it was written by Evgeny Platunov - “One of the 24” (November 25, 2008):

“66 years ago, on November 25, 1942, a native of the Altai Territory, an officer from the legendary house-symbol of the Stalingrad defense, Alexei Chernyshenko, died. The last time they wrote about him in detail was back in 1970. We invite readers of the Amitel news agency to familiarize themselves with the material prepared by military history researcher Evgeniy Platunov.

In the Book of Memory of the Altai Territory (vol. 8, p. 892 Shipunovsky district, in the lists according to the Russian c/s) it is printed: “CHERNYSHENKO ALEXEY NIKIFOROVICH, b. 1923, Russian. Call 1941, Jr. l-t. Killed in battle on November 25, 1942 while defending Pavlov’s House in Stalingrad. Funeral. Brother. could. Stalingrad." The last time about our fellow countryman, who died on this day 66 years ago, was written in detail in the magazine “Siberian Lights” back in May 1970.

Eyewitness testimony

Yuri Panchenko (author of the recently published book “163 Days on the Streets of Stalingrad”) as a teenager spent the entire Battle of Stalingrad in the Central District of the city and therefore narrates the story in the first person. As follows from the preface: “The book does not reproduce heroism, which was necessary then, but has now been rightly rethought, but a universal tragedy, where there is no division of people into strangers and our own: into Germans, Austrians, Romanians, Croats and multinational Russians. Need, suffering, hunger, typhoid louse and mass death at the front equalized them before death, making everyone equal.”

It is read with interest, although it will be received ambiguously by readers. For a brief introduction, I will give a short episode in which the author expresses his point of view on the history of the defense of the House of Sergeant Pavlov.

“November 25 /1942/. Second day of encirclement. Midnight passed in impenetrable darkness. Not a sound on the dead street. An alarming unknown has cornered us. There is no thought or hope in my head. Tension twists the nerves. Shortness of breath grabs your heart. Bitter saliva makes you sick. God, send thunder on my head, a German shell, and a stray mine from a Russian soldier! Whatever you want, but not this cemetery silence.

I couldn’t stand it and ran out of the house into the yard. Fireworks of multi-colored rockets provoked me to cross the intersection on Golubinskaya Street. The railway bridge is forty steps away. From here, straight as an arrow, Kommunisticheskaya Street ended up at 9th January Square. A weak, barely audible human cry, splashed out onto the street by a draft from the boxes of burnt-out buildings, brought someone else’s animal pain to my ear. It was impossible to single out individual words in this absurd sound of despair. There was no "Hurray". Only the last vowel was heard: a!.. a!.. a!.. What is this? The enemy’s victory cry or the last dying cry of hundreds of doomed throats of Naumov’s company who rose to storm the “milk house”? (Nowadays the garrison House of Officers).

For the first time in two months of the siege of the city, the company left the inhabited basements of Pavlov’s house, Zabolotny’s house and Gerhardt’s mill. On the 9th of January Square, breaking the darkness of the night, a flare soared into the sky. Behind it is the second, the third... Multi-colored fireflies of tracer bullets from German machine guns, hastily swallowing the tape, with an angry patter, struck Naumov's 7th company right in the face.

Driven out to the square with the stereotypical phrase: “At any cost,” without a fire shield, the company found itself on the brink of death. Behind the walls of the ruins of the former people's court and post office, in small craters and right on the tram tracks, hiding their heads and forgetting about the place where their feet grow, with their noses stuck in the dirty, dug-up snow, the soldiers of Naumov's company lay down. Some forever, others, briefly extending their lives, took refuge in the burnt-out box of the “milk house” they had captured. So, the “milk house” was taken. But that's only half the battle. The second half of the matter is how to keep it?

The bitter sweat of war, with the pungent smell of serous fluid on the soldiers’ never-drying wounds, has not yet taught us sobriety. Once again we continued to fight with manpower! Where it was necessary to lay a hundred shells and save a dozen soldiers, we lost a hundred soldiers, but saved a dozen shells. We did not and could not fight otherwise. And the drum troubadour, hiding behind the well-worn cliché “at any cost,” lost the value of the main thing in military orders - the price of human life. An example of this is the blood shed in vain during the storming of the “milk house”.

Can you object to me that a hundred soldiers’ lives are worth it against the backdrop of a grandiose battle? It's like that. I don't presume to judge the past. War is war. The point is different. The idea of a night sortie without first suppressing the enemy's firepower, without artillery support, designed only for the odd chance, and for hitting a soldier's belly, is doomed to failure in advance.

On a square as bare as a rooster's knee, Naumov's company was met by machine gun fire, mortar fire, and fire from a gun installed in the end window of the first floor of house No. 50 on Kommunisticheskaya Street. This building was two hundred steps from the attackers. In the rear of the “milk house” (along the railway) there was a concrete wall with cut-out rifle cells, and on the rise of Parkhomenko Street, a German tank dug into the ground kept the entire 9th January Square, Pavlov’s house, Zabolotny’s house and Gerhardt’s mill under fire.

I have not invented the detailed defensive capabilities of the enemy. I know the man who saw all this with his own eyes well. It's me.

And finally, the main thing is that from the very beginning, the idea played out around the “milk house” was called into question. This house, built in haste during the years of Stalin's shock five-year plans, did not have a basement. In street battles, strong walls and deep basements were the main criteria for the defense capability of a line. Thus, I repeat, the attacking Naumovites were obviously doomed.

In a completely shot-through cage made of crumbling limestone, the 7th company of Ivan Naumov did not die for snuff. This page of the tragic fate of a handful of people, completely invisible against the backdrop of a grandiose battle, will close tomorrow.

By mid-day there were nine people left in the milk house, and in the evening there were four. At night, three completely exhausted people crawled into the basement of Pavlov’s house: Sergeant Gridin, Corporal Romazanov and Private Murzaev. This is all that remains of the twenty-four garrison of Pavlov's house. The remnants of the entire company are slightly larger. The rest were killed and maimed, but the “milk house” remained with the Germans.

This is how the last significant military contact between the opponents on January 9th Square ended bitterly.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 27, 1945, Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. When asked by journalists who nominated Pavlov for heroism, the regiment commander, Colonel Elin, replied: “I did not sign such a report.”

This was the personal initiative of the former commander of the 62nd Army V.I. Chuikova. And 15 years later they remembered the surviving cripples of the garrison of Pavlov’s house. They were also awarded.

Sergeant Pavlov's combat merits are no greater than the merits of other soldiers in Art. Lieutenant Afanasyev, who was responsible for the defense of the house. And the award given, like to other participants in the battle on November 25th, is a serious injury. In fact, by existing front-line standards, the assault on the “milk house” was an ordinary event in which Naumov’s company failed to cope with the task. If so, then there can be no talk of awards. Only at the end of 1943, Pavlov was awarded a medal and a cash bonus for a destroyed tank during the liberation of Krivoy Rog, and during the liberation of Poland in 1944, he was awarded two Orders of the Red Star. But he was awarded these awards in another military unit, because after being wounded during the storming of the “milk house”, Sergeant Pavlov did not return to his unit.

The oblivion of this feat also lay in the hostility of the personal relations between army commander Chuikov and division commander Rodimtsev. Due to the fact that all printed and photographic information permitted by censorship came from the location of the 13th Guards. rifle division, then the division commander, Hero of the Soviet Union, General Rodimtsev, aroused the unhealthy jealousy of Chuikov’s army headquarters: “They gave all the glory of Stalingrad to Rodimtsev!”, “Rodimtsev is a general for the newspapers, he did nothing!”

As a result, all the dogs were pinned on Rodimtsev. After the Stalingrad victory, the military council of the 62nd Army nominated Rodimtsev for the Order of Suvorov, and then sent a telegram to the headquarters of the Don Front canceling the nomination. Thus, Rodimtsev, who withstood the brunt of street fighting for the city, became the only commander of the formation who did not receive a single award for Stalingrad. The humiliated and insulted general did not bend. The second time, as on the edge of the Volga at the Salt Pier, he survived and won. And after the war, the infallible Chuikov began to sing the praises of Hero of the Soviet Union Rodimtsev twice. But these praises were for simpletons. Direct and firm Rodimtsev, offended in vain, never forgave his former army commander.

Those killed on the 9th of January Square began to be collected in February, and in March they were buried in a mass grave near Pavlov’s house... A little later, the grave mound was edged with an anchor chain with two fake cannonballs at the entrance. The rich Union of Soviets did not find funds for more. The plate with the inscription: “To the heroes of Russia, the soldiers of Stalingrad, who gave their lives for the Fatherland, who saved the world from fascist enslavement” was placed on the zlotys of the beggar of the Union of Polish Patriots in February 1946.

And now the worst part. The grave was and continues to remain faceless. There was never a single name or surname of the deceased on it. As if in the pit near the remains of the people written off as expendable there were no relatives, no loved ones, no family, no children, or themselves. A soldier had a name only when he held a rifle in his hands, and when he let it go, he became nothing. Time has mixed the bones, and the ritual blasphemy with which the dead were buried deprived them of human memory. There were 187 mass graves in the city - and not a single name! This is not an oversight. This is a treacherous installation from above, where they decided that one grave of the Spaniard Ruben Ibarruri was enough for all the fallen defenders of Stalingrad. Apparently, the grief of Dolores Passionaria is not at all the tears of our own mothers.

It is necessary to pull out from the tenacious embrace of a mass grave the names of those for whom this square became their last refuge:

Lieutenant V. Dovzhenko, commander of the 7th company;
- art. Lieutenant Ivan Naumov, commander of the 7th company;
- Lieutenant Kubati Tukov, intelligence officer;
- ml. Lieutenant Nikolai Zabolotny, platoon commander;
- ml. Lieutenant Alexey Chernyshenko, platoon commander;
- Private I.Ya. Haita;
- Private Faizullin;
- Private A.A. Sabgayda;
- Private I.L. Shkuratova;
- Private P.D. Demchenko;
- Private Davydov;
- Private Karnaukhov;
- art. Lieutenant N.P. Evgenieva;
- ml. Lieutenant Rostovsky;
- Lieutenant A.I. Ostapko;
- Sergeant Pronin;
- Private Savin.

On December 22, 1942, in Moscow, a medal was established: “For the defense of Stalingrad.” Thus, the military and political leadership of the Soviet army, not wanting to pay their last respects to their fallen soldiers in a purely human way, decided to pay off pompously and cheaply by hanging a bronze token for Stalingrad on the chests of those left to live. At the Dog Slaughterhouse landfill, the corpses of Germans were burned, the remains of townspeople were thrown into orphaned trenches, and the dead Red Army soldiers were buried en masse in the massacre pits. All! It is done".