After the defeat of the Georgian army, its retreating units regrouped and decided to return to Gori, but stumbled upon a Russian checkpoint. Has everyone seen this photo?! Who thought about the essence of what happened? The photograph shows how a soldier of the Russian Armed Forces, with a machine gun at the ready, is confronting the motorized infantry of the Georgian Armed Forces; the officers of the column threatened the machine gunner to move out of the way and let them through, to which they heard in response “Go to ...!” Then the media who were moving with the convoy tried to talk to the machine gunner, and received the same answer. As a result, the column turned around and moved back to where it had come from. Foreign journalists then published an article entitled “You don’t need 300, one is enough.” What was this soldier thinking? How did he feel at that moment? Wasn't he scared? Surely it was. Or did he not dream of having children and grandchildren, and living a long and happy life? Of course I did. Can you imagine a NATO soldier standing like this, with a machine gun in front of an enemy column? Me not. They value their lives too much. Then what's wrong with you? Why are you Russians different? And why do foreigners consider you crazy and unpredictable people? The point is not at all about fearlessness or a disregard for the most precious thing we have - our own life. Then what? I started looking for an answer. Are there other people who would so desperately love life and everything connected with it? You live with an open soul, with a hussar's scope. You are the one who invites gypsies and bears to your wedding. You are the one who can throw a party with your last money, generously feed all the guests, and wake up penniless in the morning. You know how to live as if every day of your life is the last. And there will be no tomorrow. There is only now. All your poems and songs are literally permeated through and through with love for life, but only you know how to listen to them and cry your heart out. Only your people have sayings: “To fall in love is like a queen, to steal is like a million,” “He who doesn’t take risks doesn’t drink champagne.” This is from the desire to drink this life to the dregs, to experience everything in it that one can manage. Then why are you Russians, standing and looking into the eyes of the enemy, able to give up this life so easily? This is embedded in your genetic code and dates back to the very times when the first aggressor set foot on our Russian soil. It has always been this way. At all times. Only the chain mail and helmets changed, the spears were replaced by machine guns. You got tanks and learned to fly. But the code remains the same. And it always triggers in you when your home is about to be destroyed or captured. And he also haunts you if the weak are offended. How it works? Disturbing music begins to sound in you, which only you can hear. This code rings a bell in you until uninvited guests are thrown out of your land. And this is where the most important thing happens. A warrior awakens in each of you. In everyone, from small to large. And this connects you with an invisible thread. And foreigners cannot understand this. To do this you need to BE Russian. BE BORN by him. When your land is threatened, or someone is being wronged somewhere on earth, be it in Abkhazia or Ossetia, or in the Donbass, your snipers become the most accurate, your tankmen become fireproof. Pilots turn into aces and remember such incredible things as a corkscrew and a ram. Your scouts work wonders, your sailors become unsinkable, and your infantry resembles staunch tin soldiers. Therefore, those who are planning to attack the Russians and expect to see kneeling Russians on Russian soil, with loaves of bread and flowers, will be very disappointed. They will see a completely different picture. And I don't think they'll like her. They are destined to see a Russian man who has become a Warrior, next to whom will stand fearless brothers - wars, of all peoples and nationalities living in Russia!
Georgia 08.08.08
This is a famous photo. Georgia, 08.08.08
After the defeat of the Georgian army, its retreating units regrouped and decided to return to Gori, but stumbled upon a Russian checkpoint. The photograph shows how a soldier of the Russian Armed Forces, armed with a machine gun, is confronting the motorized infantry of the Georgian Armed Forces; the officers of the column threatened the machine gunner to move out of the way and let them through, to which they heard in response “Iditenah..yb...t.”
Then the media who were moving with the convoy tried to talk to the machine gunner, and received the same answer.
As a result, the column turned around and moved back to where it had come from.
What was this soldier thinking? How did he feel at that moment? Wasn't he scared? Surely it was. Or did he not dream of having children and grandchildren, and living a long and happy life? Of course I did. Can you imagine a NATO soldier standing like this, with a machine gun in front of an enemy column? Me not. They value their lives too much. Then what's wrong with us? Why are we Russians different? And why do foreigners consider us crazy and unpredictable people?
Pictures from other places our soldiers had visited instantly flashed before my eyes.
Here is the Slatina airport, the famous rush of our paratroopers to Pristina to help our Serb brothers. 200 Russian paratroopers against NATO soldiers. How did they feel standing face to face with superior enemy forces? I'm sure it's the same as our soldier in Georgia. Donbass, Novorossiya. year 2014. Alexander Scriabin died as a hero, throwing himself under a tank with grenades. Alexander was 54 years old, he worked at the Talovskaya mine as a mining assembler. The deceased is survived by his wife and two daughters.
Were his feelings different from those experienced by Alexander Matrosov, covering the embrasure of a German bunker with his body? The point is not at all about fearlessness or a disregard for the most precious thing we have - our own life. Then what? I started looking for an answer. Are there other people who would so desperately love life and everything connected with it? We live with an open soul, with hussar scope. We are the ones who invite gypsies and bears to the wedding. We are the ones who are able to organize a holiday with our last money, generously feed all the guests, and wake up penniless in the morning. We know how to live as if every day of our life is the last. And there will be no tomorrow. There is only now. All our poems and songs are literally permeated through and through with love for life, but only we know how to listen to them and sob bitterly.
Only our people have sayings: “To fall in love is like a queen, to steal is like a million,” “He who doesn’t take risks doesn’t drink champagne.” This is from the desire to drink this life to the dregs, to experience everything in it that one can manage. Then why are we, Russians, standing and looking into the eyes of the enemy, able to part with this life so easily? This is embedded in our genetic code and dates back to the very times when the first aggressor set foot on our Russian soil.
It has always been this way. At all times. Only the chain mail and helmets changed, the spears were replaced by machine guns. We got tanks and learned to fly. But the code remains the same. And it always triggers in us when our home is about to be destroyed or captured. And he also haunts us if the weak are offended. How it works? Disturbing music begins to sound within us, which only we can hear. This code rings a bell in us until the uninvited guests are thrown out from our land.
And this is where the most important thing happens. A warrior awakens in each of us. In everyone, from small to large. And this connects us with an invisible thread. And foreigners cannot understand this. To do this you need to BE Russian. BE BORN by him. When our land is threatened, or someone is offended somewhere on earth, be it in Angola, Vietnam or Ossetia, our snipers become the most accurate, our tank crews become fireproof. Pilots turn into aces and remember such incredible things as a corkscrew and a ram. Our scouts work wonders, the sailors become unsinkable, and the infantry resembles staunch tin soldiers. And every Russian, without exception, becomes a defender. Even very old people and young children.
Remember the grandfather from Novorossiya, who fed the enemy a jar of honey filled with explosives. This is a true story. And we have a whole country of such warriors!
Therefore, those who are planning to attack the Russians and expect to see kneeling Russians on Russian soil, with loaves of bread and flowers, will be very disappointed. They will see a completely different picture. And I don't think they'll like her.
They are destined to see our grandfathers, fathers, husbands and brothers. Behind them will be mothers, wives and daughters. And behind them will be the heroes of Afghanistan and Chechnya, soldiers of the Second World War and the First World War, participants in the Battle of Kulikovo and the Battle of the Ice.
Because we are Russians... God is with us!
It turns out that he is “under treatment in a serious condition.” Probably in his homeland, in the Aginsky Buryat Okrug of the Trans-Baikal Territory. The newspaper “New Buryatia” wrote about this. But the material was not published in the paper version of the newspaper. And the publication was removed from the site. Only in the cache was the material saved.
“New Buryatia” wrote:
Currently, journalists’ access to Dorzhi Batomunkuev, who, according to sources of “New Buryatia,” is located in the Mogoituy central district hospital, is difficult. His mother today denies any previous contacts with the press. She says that her son did not give an interview to Elena Kostyuchenko. In the interview itself, Sesegma Batomunkuevna finds information that, in her opinion, is clearly untrue.
It says about his trips, as if he had traveled all over Asia (at the age of 20 - S.B.), says the mother of the tanker. - We have nine children, he is the eldest son... How can he go somewhere?! That is, even in such little things... In general, everything is made up!
However, so far neither the Russian Ministry of Defense, nor representatives of military unit No. 46108, nor Dorzhi Batomunkuev’s relatives have gone to court regarding the allegedly unreliable information allegedly contained in Elena Kostyuchenko’s article. Apparently, not wanting to be in a disadvantageous position and assuming that a prudent journalist might retain an audio or video recording of the interview itself.
Dorji could boast about traveling around the world, why not. Maybe these trips are the guy’s most cherished dream. And in his mind, dreams and reality could well be mixed up... And the fact that representatives of the military unit and relatives assume that Lena Kosyuchenko has “an audio or video recording of the interview itself” - they correctly assume...
When I read about Dorzhi Batomunkuev, for some reason I remember another Buryat soldier. True, they write about him that he is a Yakut soldier, but for some reason it seems to me that in appearance he is very similar to Dorji. So they're drilling? This is the same soldier who, in August 2008, with a light machine gun advanced against a column of Georgian soldiers.
The officers of the column tried to persuade the soldier to move out of the way and let them through, to which the response was: “Go to...”. Journalists who were moving with the column tried to talk to the machine gunner. But we received the same answer. As a result, the column turned around and moved back to where it had come from.
A Buryat machine gunner, a burnt Buryat tankman, optimistically dreaming of traveling around the world... It turns out that the most heroic Russian soldiers are Buryats?
Photo: Obelisk at the site of Nikolai Sirotinin’s last battle on July 17, 1941. A real 76-millimeter gun was erected nearby on a pedestal - Sirotinin fired at enemies from a similar cannon
In July 1941, the Red Army retreated in battle. In the Krichev area (Mogilev region), Heinz Guderian's 4th Panzer Division was advancing deep into Soviet territory, and was opposed by the 6th Infantry Division.
On July 10, an artillery battery of a rifle division entered the village of Sokolnichi, located three kilometers from Krichev. One of the guns was commanded by 20-year-old senior sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin.
While waiting for the enemy to attack, the soldiers whiled away the time in the village. Sirotinin and his fighters settled in the house of Anastasia Grabskaya.
And one warrior in the field
The approaching cannonade coming from the direction of Mogilev, and the columns of refugees walking east along the Warsaw Highway, indicated that the enemy was approaching.
It is not entirely clear why senior sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin remained alone at his gun during the battle. According to one version, he volunteered to cover the retreat of his fellow soldiers across the Sozh River. But it is reliably known that he equipped a position for a cannon on the outskirts of the village so that the road across the bridge could be covered.
The 76-mm gun was well camouflaged in the tall rye. On July 17, a column of enemy equipment appeared at the 476th kilometer of the Warsaw Highway. Sirotinin opened fire. This is how this battle was described by employees of the archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense (T. Stepanchuk and N. Tereshchenko) in the Ogonyok magazine for 1958.
- In front is an armored personnel carrier, behind it are trucks filled with soldiers. A camouflaged cannon hit the column. An armored personnel carrier caught fire and several mangled trucks fell into ditches. Several armored personnel carriers and a tank crawled out of the forest. Nikolai knocked out a tank. Trying to get around the tank, two armored personnel carriers got stuck in a swamp... Nikolai himself brought ammunition, aimed, loaded and prudently sent shells into the thick of the enemies.
Finally, the Nazis discovered where the fire was coming from and brought all their power down on the lone gun. Nikolai died. When the Nazis saw that only one man was fighting, they were stunned. Shocked by the warrior's bravery, the Nazis buried the soldier.
Before lowering the body into the grave, Sirotinin was searched and found a medallion in his pocket, and in it a note with his name and place of residence written. This fact became known after archive staff went to the battlefield and conducted a survey of local residents. Local resident Olga Verzhbitskaya knew German and on the day of the battle, by order of the Germans, she translated what was written on a piece of paper inserted into the medallion. Thanks to her (and 17 years had passed since the battle at that time), we managed to find out the name of the hero.
Verzhbitskaya reported the soldier’s first and last name, and also that he lived in the city of Orel.
Let us note that employees of the Moscow archive arrived in the Belarusian village thanks to a letter addressed to them from local historian Mikhail Melnikov. He wrote that in the village he heard about the feat of an artilleryman who fought alone against the Nazis, which amazed the enemy.
Further investigation led historians to the city of Orel, where in 1958 they were able to meet the parents of Nikolai Sirotinin. This is how details from the boy’s short life became known.
He was drafted into the army on October 5, 1940 from the Tekmash plant, where he worked as a turner. He began his service in the 55th Infantry Regiment of the Belarusian city of Polotsk. Among the five children, Nikolai was the second oldest.
“Tender, hard-working, he helped babysit the younger ones,” mother Elena Korneevna said about him.
Thus, thanks to a local historian and caring employees of the Moscow archive, the USSR became aware of the heroic artilleryman’s feat. It was obvious that he delayed the advance of the enemy column and inflicted losses on him. But no specific information was known about the number of Nazis killed.
Later there were reports that 11 tanks, 6 armored personnel carriers and 57 enemy soldiers were destroyed. According to one version, some of them were destroyed with the help of artillery fired from across the river.
But be that as it may, Sirotinin’s feat is not measured by the number of tanks he destroyed. One, three or eleven... In this case it doesn't matter. The main thing is that the brave guy from Orel fought alone against the German armada, forcing the enemy to suffer losses and tremble with fear.
He could have fled, taken refuge in a village, or chosen a different path, but he fought to the last drop of blood. The story of Nikolai Sirotinin’s feat was continued several years after the article in Ogonyok.
“After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?”
An article entitled “This is not a legend” was published in Literary Gazette in January 1960. One of its authors was local historian Mikhail Melnikov. There it was reported that an eyewitness to the battle on July 17, 1941 was Chief Lieutenant Friedrich Henfeld. A diary with his entries was found after Henfeld's death in 1942. Entries from the chief lieutenant's diary were made by military journalist F. Selivanov in 1942. Here is a quote from Henfeld's diary:
July 17, 1941. Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening, an unknown Russian soldier was buried. He stood alone at the cannon, shot at a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was surprised at his courage... Oberst (Colonel) said before the grave that if all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. They fired three times in volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?
And here are the memories recorded in the 60s from the words of Verzhbitskaya:
- In the afternoon, the Germans gathered at the place where the cannon stood. They forced us, local residents, to come there too,” recalls Verzhbitskaya. - As someone who knows German, the chief German with orders ordered me to translate. He said that this is how a soldier should defend his homeland - the Fatherland. Then from the pocket of our dead soldier’s tunic they took out a medallion with a note about who and where. The main German told me: “Take it and write to your relatives. Let the mother know what a hero her son was and how he died.” I was afraid to do this... Then a young German officer, standing in the grave and covering Sirotinin’s body with a Soviet raincoat, snatched a piece of paper and a medallion from me and said something rudely. For a long time after the funeral, the Nazis stood at the cannon and the grave in the middle of the collective farm field, not without admiration, counting the shots and hits.
Later, a bowler hat was found at the battle site, on which was scratched: “Orphans...”.
In 1948, the remains of the hero were reburied in a mass grave. After the general public learned about Sirotinin’s feat, he was posthumously, in 1960, awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. A year later, in 1961, an obelisk was erected at the site of the battle, the inscription on which reports the battle on July 17, 1941. A real 76-mm gun is mounted on a pedestal nearby. Sirotinin fired at enemies from a similar cannon.
Unfortunately, not a single photograph of Nikolai Sirotinin has survived. There is only a pencil drawing made by his colleague in the 1990s. But the main thing is that descendants will have the memory of a brave and fearless boy from Orel, who delayed a German column of equipment and died in an unequal battle.
Andrey Osmolovsky
This Fighter with a machine gun (namely a Fighter with a capital F) is called Bato Dashidorzhiev. he is a Buryat, during the war with Georgia he served in the reconnaissance company of the 71st motorized rifle regiment.
His photograph in 2008 went around all the world's media, he alone went against the Georgian military column and won!
This is a famous photo. Georgia, 08.08.08
After the defeat of the Georgian army near Tskhinvali, its units retreated to Gori, but stumbled upon a Russian checkpoint.
The photograph shows how a soldier of the Russian Armed Forces, a stocky and tanned Asian, alone, armed with a light machine gun, confronts the motorized infantry of the Georgian Armed Forces, the officers of the column threatened the machine gunner to move out of the way and let them through, to which he sent them: “Go to hell.” ..., b...b."
Then foreign media journalists who were moving with the convoy tried to talk to the machine gunner, and received the same answer.
As a result, the column of Georgian special forces turned around and moved back to where they had come from.
What was this soldier thinking? How did he feel at that moment?
Wasn't he scared?
Surely, it was, but following the order, he firmly knew that behind him was his native 71st motorized rifle regiment, which was part of the 42nd Guards Evpatoria Red Banner Motorized Rifle Division, and he was responsible for his friends, if he chickened out and retreated, they could die his friends.
And he is standing, standing to the death!
Can you imagine a NATO soldier standing like this, with a machine gun in front of an enemy column?
Me not. They value their lives too much.
Then what's wrong with us? Why are we Russians different? Why are we, Russians, standing and looking into the eyes of the enemy, able to part with this life so easily?
This is embedded in our genetic code and dates back to the very times when the first aggressor set foot on our Russian soil. It has always been this way. At all times... and it will be so!!!
Only the chain mail and helmets changed, the spears were replaced by machine guns. We got tanks and we learned to fly, but the code remains the same!
The next day, Bato died in battle, covering his scouts who were carrying the wounded man from the battlefield.
Why hasn't a film been made about him yet?
Why is there no monument, in this characteristic pose of a warrior!
The kingdom of heaven to you, brother!
May the military exploits of you and other Russian soldiers not be forgotten by ordinary people, and may not be devalued by Russian politicians. May you rest in peace...