The longest day of the Simon year. Konstantin Simonov the longest day of the year

Essay on military events during the defense of Mogilev in the summer of 1941

The longest day of the year
With its cloudless weather
He gave us a common misfortune
For everyone, for all four years.
She made such a mark
And laid so many on the ground,
That twenty years and thirty years
The living cannot believe that they are alive.
And to the dead, having straightened the ticket,
Everyone is coming, someone close to you,
And time adds to the lists
Someone else who isn't there...
And puts
puts
obelisks.

K.M.Simonov 1971

To the generation of those distant heroic years, these lines from the front-line poet remind us of the tragedy of the beginning of the war and the incredible bitterness of the losses of our people, the saved people who were in the hell of fascism. My heart aches with grief and pain for the torment of the generation that defended our Fatherland, its freedom and independence for compatriots and future generations. Our grateful memory turns again and again to the days of the Great Patriotic War.

For K. Simonov, the front line ran through the very heart, completely changing not only his outlook on life, but also his values and priorities, becoming the milestone after which every moment of his life becomes important.
From the first days of the 1941 war, Konstantin Mikhailovich was sent from Moscow as a correspondent for the army newspaper of the 3rd Army in Grodno. It was not possible to reach our destination; after the city of Borisov, the railway had already been bombed by the Germans.
After two days of searching for the headquarters of the Western Front, he heads through Orsha to Mogilev, hoping to find it there. On the morning of June 28, Simonov arrived in Mogilev, the location of the headquarters of the Western Front, and met with the editor of the front-line newspaper, Ustinov. When leaving for the Mogilev printing house of the Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda newspaper to process notes, in the distance he saw Voroshilov and Shaposhnikov walking along a forest road. “I was glad that they were both here. It seemed that finally everything should become more clear,” Simonov writes in his diary "Different days of the war."
During the first 4 days of the war, Mogilev recruiting centers mobilized almost 25 thousand people into the Red Army. From June 24 to July 3, the headquarters of the Western
Front and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, as well as the Council of People's Commissars of Belarus. On July 1, 1941, at a meeting at the headquarters of the Western Front with the participation of the 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus (Bolsheviks) P.K. Ponomarenko, representatives of the Headquarters of the Main Command of Marshals of the Soviet Union K.E. Voroshilov and B.M. Shaposhnikov developed specific measures for the defense of Mogilev, and considered issues related to the management of military operations.
In 7 days, 2 lines of defensive lines were created around the city. A people's militia was formed, which included about 12 thousand residents of the region.
In a short time, an anti-tank ditch 25 km long was dug, dugouts, bunkers, trenches were built, and anti-tank and anti-personnel minefields were installed. Titanic, round-the-clock work was done to strengthen the city’s defenses, which made it possible to detain the enemy near Mogilev for 23 days, gaining time to strengthen the defense of Moscow.
The direct defense of the city was entrusted to the 172nd Infantry Division under the command of Major General M.T. Romanov. The 394th Regiment of the 110th Infantry Division was transferred to the operational subordination of this division; it took up defense on the eastern bank of the Dnieper. A combined regiment under the command of Major V.A. Katyushin was withdrawn to the Kazimirovka-Pashkovo-Gai-Nikolaevka-Polykovichi position, which included a fighter battalion under the command of N.I. Kalugin, a battalion of police officers under the command of Captain K.G. Vladimirov. RubezhTishovka-Buinichi -Selets, blocking the Mogilev-Bobruisk highway and the Mogilev-Zhlobin railway, was defended by soldiers of the 338th Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel S.F. Kutepov, the 340th Light Artillery Regiment (Colonel I.S. Mazalov) of the 172nd Infantry Division and a battalion of people's militia (commissar P.E. Terentyev).
Every day the enemy intensified the onslaught, the city was subjected to numerous bombings. Near the village of Sidorovichi, soldiers of the 747th Infantry Regiment blew up 20 tanks and armored personnel carriers and destroyed more than a company of Germans.
The heaviest fighting took place near the village of Buynichi. Here was the front line of defense, where the anti-tank ditch, joining the ravines, abutted the Dnieper.
On July 10, 1941, the Nazis came close to this line of defense from the Bobruisk Highway. Here the soldiers of the 388th Infantry and 340th Light Artillery Regiments and a militia detachment occupied the defense.
The defense organization here was headed by a talented commander, Colonel Semyon Fedorovich Kutepov. According to K. Simonov’s definition, he “...was capable of a lot if he had stayed to live near Mogilev.” At the turn of the Dnieper River - Bobruisk Highway - railway to Gomel - Tishovka, a deeply layered defense was created. Within 12 days, the regiment's personnel prepared two lines of full-profile trenches connected by trenches. In front of the front edge, continuous anti-tank minefields and two rows of wire barriers were created. By July 9, the entire regiment was buried in the ground.
On the morning of July 11, the earth shook from the roar of explosions. Wave after wave of German bombers swept over the regiment's positions, smoke and dust stood like a solid wall.
After this, about a hundred tanks and up to a regiment of enemy infantry moved into the attack. Our artillery opened barrage fire, several German tanks caught fire, the rest continued to advance. When the distance was reduced, the entire system of our anti-tank and small arms began to work. Several tanks were knocked out. The survivors approach the front line, lift the barbed wire and end up in minefields. Several tanks were also blown up. The rest, along with the infantry, retreated to the forest on the outskirts of the Buinichi field. On that day, about 300 German soldiers and up to 20 destroyed tanks remained in front of our regiments in the rye field.
On July 12, having forestalled an enemy attack, our artillery hit a concentration of German tanks in a grove and inflicted significant losses on the enemy.
Colonel Kutepov and commander of the 340th artillery regiment, Colonel Mazalov I.S. They moved their observation posts to a height behind the Buinichi railway station.
More than 70 enemy tanks reached the edge of the forest and began to fire at the regiment’s positions with guns and machine guns, and then, turning into a battle line, went on the offensive. One of the groups of tanks, firing, moved along the Mogilev-Gomel railway, but here they came across a battery of 76-mm guns. Several of them burst into flames, but the battery was also crushed. Having passed the railway station, enemy tanks penetrated into the depths of the 388th Regiment's defenses and approached an insurmountable anti-tank ditch. Here they came under fire from Lieutenant Vozgrin's battery. Several more machines were out of order. The survivors split into two groups and went around the anti-tank ditch. At this time, they were attacked by militia fighters from the artificial fiber factory. The second group of tanks stumbled upon a minefield, and most of them were blown up. Several tanks, ironing the infantry trenches and pouring lead fire from machine guns all around, nevertheless burst into our positions. However, all of them were set on fire by the fighters with Molotov cocktails.
This battle on July 12 lasted 14 hours and ended in victory for the defenders of Mogilev. During the battle, 39 German tanks, armored vehicles and about a regiment of enemy infantry were shot down and burned. As night fell, everything became silent. Funeral teams worked on both sides, picking up the wounded and dead.
After the battle, war correspondents K. Simonov and P. Troshkin arrived at the Buinichi field, who managed to photograph the still smoking cemetery of Wehrmacht combat vehicles. Troshin’s photographs and K. Simonov’s essay “Hot Day” about the amazing courage and resilience of the defenders of the city of Mogilev were published by the Izvestia newspaper on July 20, 1941.
The events of the heroic defense were reflected in Simonov’s novel “The Living and the Dead” - Colonel Kutepov served as the prototype of the main character of Serpilin’s novel; in the diary “Different Days of the War” Simonov returns and returns to the battlefield for Mogilev.
This touches to the core. “I was not a soldier, I was just a correspondent, but I have a piece of land that I will never forget - this is the field near Mogilev, where for the first time in July 1941 I saw how our people were knocked out and burned in one day 39 German tanks…”, wrote the chronicler of the Patriotic War, the founder of the Truth about the War of 1941-1945, Kostantin Mikhailovich Simonov, in his diary. With this recognition alone, Mogilev entered the history of military literature for all times and is therefore especially dear to us and loved by the Belarusian people.
On July 13, the fighting began to subside. The German infantry trying to advance was repulsed, and few of them managed to escape.
The soldiers of S.F. Kutepov also suffered heavy losses. and Mazalova I.S. on Buinichi field.
The 1st battalion of the 388th regiment was almost completely destroyed, its commander, Captain Abramov, and chief of staff, Senior Lieutenant Markov, were killed. The 3rd battalion of the regiment suffered significant losses; its commander, Captain Gavryushin, was seriously wounded, the regimental commissar Zlobin and many of our other soldiers were wounded in the head.
The 338th Infantry Regiment held positions on the Buynichi field until July 22, after which, following the order of the division commander, it withdrew the surviving units to the outskirts of the city to the artificial fiber factory.
On July 24, the regiment endured its last fierce battle with enemy infantry. In this close battle, our soldiers fought to the end with bayonets and grenades, and at the cost of their lives they managed to stop the Germans. The strength of the fighters gradually dried up, and by July 25, wounded and weakened, no more than a battalion remained.
On July 24, the enemy broke through to the outskirts of Mogilev, street battles took place near the Dnieper bridge, train station, Mogilev-Tovarny station, and artificial silk factory. Warriors and militias rejected the German ultimatum to surrender. At a meeting between the division command and the city leadership, it was decided to fight out of the encirclement. On the night of July 26, after a sudden powerful artillery barrage, the soldiers of the 338th regiment with attached units broke through to the west, the soldiers of the 747th and 394th consolidated regiments crossed the Dnieper, fought to the east and joined forces with units of the 13th Army across the Sozh River.
The defense of Mogilev was of great importance for the subsequent course of the war. Here the offensive of Army Group Center in the main Moscow direction was delayed for a month. Here, invaluable experience was gained, used in the defense of Stalingrad; our beautiful city of Mogilev was called the “Father of Stalingrad” during the fierce days of the Great Patriotic War.

P.S. The terrible war ended, peace and quiet came, but K.M. Simonov often returned to the Mogilev defense, the characters and fates of many of the city’s defencists were reflected to one degree or another in the novels “The Living and the Dead”, “Soldiers Are Not Born”, “The Last summer" and other works.
The writer’s big heart belonged to Mogilev throughout the post-war years. He came here several times, walked for a long time around the Buinichi field and other places of former battles, met with war veterans, spoke to workers and students, and carried on lively correspondence with Mogilev residents.
On August 28, 1979, the writer passed away. According to the will, the ashes of Konstantin Simonov were scattered on the Buinichi field, and on November 25, 1980, a memorial sign in his memory was unveiled here. A stone-boulder weighing 15 tons, on which the writer’s name and surname is carved, was chosen by Simonov’s relatives on the territory of the Belarusian Republican Museum of Boulders. On the back side of the stone there is a plaque with the inscription: “K.M. Simonov. 1916-1979. All his life he remembered this battlefield in the summer of 1941 and bequeathed his ashes to be scattered here.”
In memory of the front-line writer, one of the streets of the city was named after him, and a museum of K.M. Simonov was opened in the chemical-technological college. Every year, the International “Simonov Readings” are held in Mogilev, dedicated to the writer’s birthday.

Seventy-five years ago the Great Patriotic War began. June 22, 1941 was one of the most terrible days in the history of our country. In those difficult days, when it seemed to many that Hitler could not be stopped (he really could not be stopped for a long time), some exceptional mental strength was needed to believe in the final Victory over the Nazis. To beat an enemy who has lost his human form...

Of course, the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union was predictable, it was expected, it was warned about. However, when it did happen, the country was at a loss. The cost of this confusion was extremely high, and this should not be forgotten.

Subjective reasons are on the surface, they are obvious. Scouts have warned more than once Joseph Stalin about the impending war. But he did not completely believe their reports, believing that the German intelligence services were deliberately planting disinformation, trying to provoke the Soviet Union into a preemptive strike. In this issue of the magazine we publish a photo with the famous “obscene” resolution of the leader on the memo of the People's Commissar of State Security Vsevolod Merkulova, which was sent to Stalin five days before the start of the war.

However, one should not pretend that the Germans deceived the simpleton. A stream of the most diverse, often contradictory intelligence information flowed into Moscow, and making sense of this stream was very difficult. It was a loss in a complex intelligence game. Its reason is that Stalin was putting off the war with all his might, realizing that the country had not yet prepared for it technically and organizationally, and therefore was extremely suspicious of this kind of reports. This was the mistake: at some point the Germans outplayed him.

An idle critic could immediately continue: “But if he trusted people more, if he avoided making individual decisions, if the top of the army had not died during the repressions, if the country had not a dictatorship, but democracy... Then, you see, victory would not have come at such a price.” If only, if only, if only...

The main question is whether it was possible in principle to be ready for such a large-scale, “total” war, as the Germans themselves called it, and even with the country for which she worked. O most of what was then Europe? How can we measure and compare this “readiness” with what? After all, judging not by the results of wars, but by their initial stages, Russia was not ready for any of the major European conflicts. Neither to the Northern War, which began with defeat near Narva, nor to the Patriotic War of 1812, when Napoleon ended up in Moscow. What can we say about the First World War!

In 1941, not just countries of different types of economies collided, but also countries with different socio-economic capabilities, if you like, with different mental attitudes. Germany, with a population that has long been waiting for geopolitical revenge, and, moreover, has already tasted the first easy fruits of the redivision of the world, is one of the technological leaders recognized in the world. On the other hand, there is Russia, a country, frankly speaking, with an average level of technical equipment, which has recently experienced two revolutions and the social and demographic catastrophes they generated, the Civil War, devastation; a country that began industrialization with a huge overexertion of forces, but by 1941 had not completed it.

Add to this the German methodology and pedantry, which collided with the Russian “maybe”. However, soon with the Russian he “harnesses slowly, but drives quickly.” With the perseverance and self-sacrifice of Soviet soldiers. With the heroic work of the Soviet people in the rear. Finally, with the firmness and composure of Stalin, who managed to keep a country that had seemingly already collapsed there on the edge of the abyss...

“If only, if only, if only.” We hear about the excessively high cost of victory here and there, but has anyone tried to estimate what the cost of our defeat would be?

As for the Great Patriotic War, despite the military disasters of the summer-autumn of 1941, and then 1942, we still won. This was a real, without any exaggeration, feat of millions of our fellow citizens - as the song says, “from the country’s marshals to the privates.” Low bow to all of them. And eternal memory...

30 years after the start of the war Konstantin Simonov- a man who did perhaps more than others to preserve the memory of the Great Patriotic War - wrote very accurately about it...

She made such a mark
And laid so many on the ground,
That twenty years and thirty years
The living cannot believe that they are alive.
And to the dead, having straightened the ticket,
Everyone is coming, someone close to you,
And time adds to the lists
Someone else who is not there...
And puts
puts
obelisks.

Vladimir Rudakov,
editor-in-chief of the magazine "Historian"

Konstantin Simonov is rightfully considered a front-line poet, since the overwhelming number of his works are dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War. This is not surprising, since he went to the front in 1939 as a war correspondent, so he met the news of the German attack on the USSR in the field. However, he remembered this day for the rest of his life, because it deprived the future of hundreds of thousands of people who died on the battlefields.

has become a definite milestone in modern literature. Even 30 years after the start of the Great Patriotic War, Konstantin Simonov clearly remembered “that longest day of the year” to which he dedicated his poem of the same name. These memories can hardly be called joyful, although the poet notes the beautiful summer weather, which is completely at odds with the sounds of cannonade and reports that the Soviet Union has entered the war.

This day, according to the poet, “gave us a common misfortune,” the consequences of which are felt many years later. Yes, the country managed to rise from devastation, several generations of people have grown up who

We saw war only in movies. However, she left an indelible mark on the souls of those who went through this bloody mess. And these people still “can’t believe they’re alive.” However, every year there are fewer and fewer war veterans. Not only old soldiers are passing away, but also those who forged victory in the war in the rear, working for the defense industry. The hardships of military life not only hardened these people, but also took away their health. Therefore, 30 years later, “one of our loved ones, having straightened the ticket, still goes to the dead.” Konstantin Simonov never believed in mysticism, but in this case he is convinced that only in this way can fallen soldiers finally meet those who loved, remembered and waited for them all these years.

“Time adds someone else to the list who is not there...” the poet notes with sadness and regret, emphasizing that more and more obelisks are appearing in cemeteries. They are also a legacy of the past war, since under each monument lies a soldier from yesterday. For him, the front line ran through his very heart, completely changing not only his outlook on life, but also his values and priorities, becoming the line after which every moment of existence under a peaceful sky becomes important.

The longest day of the Simon year. Konstantin Simonov the longest day of the year

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