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Amazasp Khachaturovich Babajanyan (Arm. Համազասպ Խաչատուրի Բաբաջանյան ; 5 (18th of Febuary 1906, village Chardakhly , Elizavetpol province, now Shamkir district , Azerbaijan - Nov. 1 1977 , Moscow) - Soviet military leader, Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces (April 29 1975). Hero of the Soviet Union (26 April 1944).
Initial biography
Amazasp Khachaturovich Babajanyan was born on February 18, 1906 in the village of Chardakhly, Elizavetpol province, now Shamkhor region of Azerbaijan, into an Armenian peasant family with 8 children.
After finishing five years of high school, he worked on his father’s farm and worked as a farm laborer.
After finishing school Babajanyan in September 1929 was sent to the 7th Caucasian Rifle Regiment ( Caucasian Red Banner Army), where he served as a platoon commander, secretary of the party bureau of a separate battalion and company commander, while in which he took part in military operations against gangs and anti-Soviet protests. In one of the battles he was wounded.
The Great Patriotic War
At the beginning of the war, the 19th Army was redeployed and included in Western Front.
In August 1941, Babajanyan was appointed to the position of commander 395th Infantry Regiment (127th Infantry Division, converted September 18 in 2nd Guards), after which he took part in the Battle of Smolensk And Elninsky offensive operation, after which he participated as part of a task force under the command of General A. N. Ermakova during defensive and offensive combat operations in the city area Glukhov and in Oryol-Bryansk defensive operation, and then conducted defensive military operations under Kursk And Tim.
The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front resumed their offensive... Already on March 24, the 20th Guards Mechanized Brigade of Colonel A. Kh. Babajanyan reached Zalishchikov To Dniester, for which its commander was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasilevsky A.M. Life's work. Second edition, expanded. - M: Publishing House of Political Literature, 1975. P.402.
Post-war career
After the end of the war, Babajanyan continued to command the corps, which in July 1945 was transformed into 11th Guards Tank Division.
Awards
- Four Order of Lenin ;
- Four Order of the Red Banner ;
- Order of Suvorov 1st degree;
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree (12/18/1956);
- Order of Suvorov 2nd degree;
- Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree;
- Order "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" 3rd degree
- Medals;
- Foreign awards, including:
- Order of the People's Republic of Bulgaria with swords.
- Honorary Citizen of the Cities Yelnya (Smolensk region , 1970), Zalishchiki (Ternopil region , Ukraine), Gdynia (Poland , 1972).
Memory
The following were named in honor of Amazasp Khachaturovich Babajanyan:
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Notes
Essays
- Babajanyan A. Kh./ Literary record of Y. Sadovsky. - 2nd, corrected and supplemented. - M.: Young guard, . - 288 p. - 150,000 copies.
Literature
Team of authors. Great Patriotic War: Komkory. Military biographical dictionary / Under the general editorship of M. G. Vozhakin. - M.; Zhukovsky: Kuchkovo Pole, 2006. - T. 2. - P. 101-103. - ISBN 5-901679-08-3.
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Excerpt characterizing Babajanyan, Amazasp Khachaturovich
Near the village of Praca, Rostov was ordered to look for Kutuzov and the sovereign. But here not only were they not there, but there was not a single commander, but there were heterogeneous crowds of frustrated troops.
He urged his already tired horse to get through these crowds as quickly as possible, but the further he moved, the more upset the crowds became. The high road on which he drove out was crowded with carriages, carriages of all kinds, Russian and Austrian soldiers, of all branches of the military, wounded and unwounded. All this hummed and swarmed in a mixed manner to the gloomy sound of flying cannonballs from the French batteries placed on the Pratsen Heights.
- Where is the sovereign? where is Kutuzov? - Rostov asked everyone he could stop, and could not get an answer from anyone.
Finally, grabbing the soldier by the collar, he forced him to answer himself.
- Eh! Brother! Everyone has been there for a long time, they have fled ahead! - the soldier said to Rostov, laughing at something and breaking free.
Leaving this soldier, who was obviously drunk, Rostov stopped the horse of the orderly or the guard of an important person and began to question him. The orderly announced to Rostov that an hour ago the sovereign had been driven at full speed in a carriage along this very road, and that the sovereign was dangerously wounded.
“It can’t be,” said Rostov, “that’s right, someone else.”
“I saw it myself,” said the orderly with a self-confident grin. “It’s time for me to know the sovereign: it seems like how many times I’ve seen something like this in St. Petersburg.” A pale, very pale man sits in a carriage. As soon as the four blacks let loose, my fathers, he thundered past us: it’s time, it seems, to know both the royal horses and Ilya Ivanovich; It seems that the coachman does not ride with anyone else like the Tsar.
Rostov let his horse go and wanted to ride on. A wounded officer walking past turned to him.
-Who do you want? – asked the officer. - Commander-in-Chief? So he was killed by a cannonball, killed in the chest by our regiment.
“Not killed, wounded,” another officer corrected.
- Who? Kutuzov? - asked Rostov.
- Not Kutuzov, but whatever you call him - well, it’s all the same, there aren’t many alive left. Go over there, to that village, all the authorities have gathered there,” said this officer, pointing to the village of Gostieradek, and walked past.
Rostov rode at a pace, not knowing why or to whom he would go now. The Emperor is wounded, the battle is lost. It was impossible not to believe it now. Rostov drove in the direction that was shown to him and in which a tower and a church could be seen in the distance. What was his hurry? What could he now say to the sovereign or Kutuzov, even if they were alive and not wounded?
“Go this way, your honor, and here they will kill you,” the soldier shouted to him. - They'll kill you here!
- ABOUT! what are you saying! said another. -Where will he go? It's closer here.
Rostov thought about it and drove exactly in the direction where he was told that he would be killed.
“Now it doesn’t matter: if the sovereign is wounded, should I really take care of myself?” he thought. He entered the area where most of the people fleeing from Pratsen died. The French had not yet occupied this place, and the Russians, those who were alive or wounded, had long abandoned it. On the field, like heaps of good arable land, lay ten people, fifteen killed and wounded on every tithe of space. The wounded crawled down in twos and threes together, and one could hear their unpleasant, sometimes feigned, as it seemed to Rostov, screams and moans. Rostov started to trot his horse so as not to see all these suffering people, and he became scared. He feared not for his life, but for the courage that he needed and which, he knew, would not withstand the sight of these unfortunates.
The French, who stopped shooting at this field strewn with the dead and wounded, because there was no one alive on it, saw the adjutant riding along it, aimed a gun at him and threw several cannonballs. The feeling of these whistling, terrible sounds and the surrounding dead people merged for Rostov into one impression of horror and self-pity. He remembered his mother's last letter. “What would she feel,” he thought, “if she saw me now here, on this field and with guns pointed at me.”
In the village of Gostieradeke there were, although confused, but in greater order, Russian troops marching away from the battlefield. The French cannonballs could no longer reach here, and the sounds of firing seemed distant. Here everyone already saw clearly and said that the battle was lost. Whoever Rostov turned to, no one could tell him where the sovereign was, or where Kutuzov was. Some said that the rumor about the sovereign’s wound was true, others said that it was not, and explained this false rumor that had spread by the fact that, indeed, the pale and frightened Chief Marshal Count Tolstoy galloped back from the battlefield in the sovereign’s carriage, who rode out with others in the emperor’s retinue on the battlefield. One officer told Rostov that beyond the village, to the left, he saw someone from the higher authorities, and Rostov went there, no longer hoping to find anyone, but only to clear his conscience before himself. Having traveled about three miles and having passed the last Russian troops, near a vegetable garden dug in by a ditch, Rostov saw two horsemen standing opposite the ditch. One, with a white plume on his hat, seemed familiar to Rostov for some reason; another, unfamiliar rider, on a beautiful red horse (this horse seemed familiar to Rostov) rode up to the ditch, pushed the horse with his spurs and, releasing the reins, easily jumped over the ditch in the garden. Only the earth crumbled from the embankment from the horse’s hind hooves. Turning his horse sharply, he again jumped back over the ditch and respectfully addressed the rider with the white plume, apparently inviting him to do the same. The horseman, whose figure seemed familiar to Rostov and for some reason involuntarily attracted his attention, made a negative gesture with his head and hand, and by this gesture Rostov instantly recognized his lamented, adored sovereign.
“But it couldn’t be him, alone in the middle of this empty field,” thought Rostov. At this time, Alexander turned his head, and Rostov saw his favorite features so vividly etched in his memory. The Emperor was pale, his cheeks were sunken and his eyes sunken; but there was even more charm and meekness in his features. Rostov was happy, convinced that the rumor about the sovereign’s wound was unfair. He was happy that he saw him. He knew that he could, even had to, directly turn to him and convey what he was ordered to convey from Dolgorukov.
But just as a young man in love trembles and faints, not daring to say what he dreams of at night, and looks around in fear, looking for help or the possibility of delay and escape, when the desired moment has come and he stands alone with her, so Rostov now, having achieved that , what he wanted more than anything in the world, did not know how to approach the sovereign, and he was presented with thousands of reasons why it was inconvenient, indecent and impossible.
"How! I seem to be glad to take advantage of the fact that he is alone and despondent. An unknown face may seem unpleasant and difficult to him at this moment of sadness; Then what can I tell him now, when just looking at him my heart skips a beat and my mouth goes dry?” Not one of those countless speeches that he, addressing the sovereign, composed in his imagination, came to his mind now. Those speeches were mostly held under completely different conditions, they were spoken for the most part at the moment of victories and triumphs and mainly on his deathbed from his wounds, while the sovereign thanked him for his heroic deeds, and he, dying, expressed his love confirmed in fact my.
“Then why should I ask the sovereign about his orders to the right flank, when it is already 4 o’clock in the evening and the battle is lost? No, I definitely shouldn’t approach him. Shouldn't disturb his reverie. It’s better to die a thousand times than to receive a bad look from him, a bad opinion,” Rostov decided and with sadness and despair in his heart he drove away, constantly looking back at the sovereign, who was still standing in the same position of indecisiveness.
While Rostov was making these considerations and sadly driving away from the sovereign, Captain von Toll accidentally drove into the same place and, seeing the sovereign, drove straight up to him, offered him his services and helped him cross the ditch on foot. The Emperor, wanting to rest and feeling unwell, sat down under an apple tree, and Tol stopped next to him. From afar, Rostov saw with envy and remorse how von Tol spoke for a long time and passionately to the sovereign, and how the sovereign, apparently crying, closed his eyes with his hand and shook hands with Tol.
“And I could be in his place?” Rostov thought to himself and, barely holding back tears of regret for the fate of the sovereign, in complete despair he drove on, not knowing where and why he was going now.
His despair was the greater because he felt that his own weakness was the cause of his grief.
He could... not only could, but he had to drive up to the sovereign. And this was the only opportunity to show the sovereign his devotion. And he didn’t use it... “What have I done?” he thought. And he turned his horse and galloped back to the place where he had seen the emperor; but there was no one behind the ditch anymore. Only carts and carriages were driving. From one furman, Rostov learned that the Kutuzov headquarters was located nearby in the village where the convoys were going. Rostov went after them.
The guard Kutuzov walked ahead of him, leading horses in blankets. Behind the bereytor there was a cart, and behind the cart walked an old servant, in a cap, a sheepskin coat and with bowed legs.
- Titus, oh Titus! - said the bereitor.
- What? - the old man answered absentmindedly.
- Titus! Go threshing.
- Eh, fool, ugh! – the old man said, spitting angrily. Several moments of silent movement passed, and the same joke was repeated again.
At five o'clock in the evening the battle was lost at all points. More than a hundred guns were already in the hands of the French.
Przhebyshevsky and his corps laid down their weapons. Other columns, having lost about half of the people, retreated in frustrated, mixed crowds.
The remnants of the troops of Lanzheron and Dokhturov, mingled, crowded around the ponds on the dams and banks near the village of Augesta.
At 6 o'clock only at the Augesta dam the hot cannonade of the French alone could still be heard, who had built numerous batteries on the descent of the Pratsen Heights and were hitting our retreating troops.
In the rearguard, Dokhturov and others, gathering battalions, fired back at the French cavalry that was pursuing ours. It was starting to get dark. On the narrow dam of Augest, on which for so many years an old miller sat peacefully in a cap with fishing rods, while his grandson, rolling up his shirt sleeves, was sorting out silver quivering fish in a watering can; on this dam, along which for so many years the Moravians drove peacefully on their twin carts loaded with wheat, in shaggy hats and blue jackets and, dusted with flour, with white carts leaving along the same dam - on this narrow dam now between wagons and cannons, under the horses and between the wheels crowded people disfigured by the fear of death, crushing each other, dying, walking over the dying and killing each other only so that, after walking a few steps, to be sure. also killed.
Every ten seconds, pumping up the air, a cannonball splashed or a grenade exploded in the middle of this dense crowd, killing and sprinkling blood on those who stood close. Dolokhov, wounded in the arm, on foot with a dozen soldiers of his company (he was already an officer) and his regimental commander, on horseback, represented the remnants of the entire regiment. Drawn by the crowd, they pressed into the entrance to the dam and, pressed on all sides, stopped because a horse in front fell under a cannon, and the crowd was pulling it out. One cannonball killed someone behind them, the other hit in front and splashed Dolokhov’s blood. The crowd moved desperately, shrank, moved a few steps and stopped again.
Walk these hundred steps, and you will probably be saved; stand for another two minutes, and everyone probably thought he was dead. Dolokhov, standing in the middle of the crowd, rushed to the edge of the dam, knocking down two soldiers, and fled onto the slippery ice that covered the pond.
“Turn,” he shouted, jumping on the ice that was cracking under him, “turn!” - he shouted at the gun. - Holds!...
The ice held it, but it bent and cracked, and it was obvious that not only under a gun or a crowd of people, but under him alone it would collapse. They looked at him and huddled close to the shore, not daring to step on the ice yet. The regiment commander, standing on horseback at the entrance, raised his hand and opened his mouth, addressing Dolokhov. Suddenly one of the cannonballs whistled so low over the crowd that everyone bent down. Something splashed into the wet water, and the general and his horse fell into a pool of blood. No one looked at the general, no one thought to raise him.
- Let's go on the ice! walked on the ice! Let's go! gate! can't you hear! Let's go! - suddenly, after the cannonball hit the general, countless voices were heard, not knowing what or why they were shouting.
One of the rear guns, which was entering the dam, turned onto the ice. Crowds of soldiers from the dam began to run to the frozen pond. The ice cracked under one of the leading soldiers and one foot went into the water; he wanted to recover and fell waist-deep.
The nearest soldiers hesitated, the gun driver stopped his horse, but shouts were still heard from behind: “Get on the ice, come on, let’s go!” let's go! And screams of horror were heard from the crowd. The soldiers surrounding the gun waved at the horses and beat them to make them turn and move. The horses set off from the shore. The ice holding the foot soldiers collapsed in a huge piece, and about forty people who were on the ice rushed forward and backward, drowning one another.
The cannonballs still whistled evenly and splashed onto the ice, into the water and, most often, into the crowd covering the dam, ponds and shore.
On Pratsenskaya Mountain, in the very place where he fell with the flagpole in his hands, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky lay, bleeding, and, without knowing it, moaned a quiet, pitiful and childish groan.
By evening he stopped moaning and became completely quiet. He didn't know how long his oblivion lasted. Suddenly he felt alive again and suffering from a burning and tearing pain in his head.
“Where is it, this high sky, which I did not know until now and saw today?” was his first thought. “And I didn’t know this suffering either,” he thought. - Yes, I didn’t know anything until now. But where am I?
He began to listen and heard the sounds of approaching horses and the sounds of voices speaking French. He opened his eyes. Above him was again the same high sky with floating clouds rising even higher, through which a blue infinity could be seen. He did not turn his head and did not see those who, judging by the sound of hooves and voices, drove up to him and stopped.
The horsemen who arrived were Napoleon, accompanied by two adjutants. Bonaparte, driving around the battlefield, gave the last orders to strengthen the batteries firing at the Augesta Dam and examined the dead and wounded remaining on the battlefield.
- De beaux hommes! [Beauties!] - said Napoleon, looking at the killed Russian grenadier, who, with his face buried in the ground and the back of his head blackened, was lying on his stomach, throwing one already numb arm far away.
– Les munitions des pieces de position sont epuisees, sire! [There are no more battery charges, Your Majesty!] - said at that time the adjutant, who arrived from the batteries that were firing at Augest.
18.02.1906 - 01.11.1977
Hero of the Soviet Union
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Babajanyan Amazasp Khachaturovich - commander of the 20th Guards Mechanized Brigade (1st Tank Army, 1st Ukrainian Front), guard colonel.
Born on February 5 (18), 1906 in the village of Chardakhly, Elizavetpol district, Elizavetpol province (now the village of Chanlibel, Shamkir region, Azerbaijan). Armenian. In 1921 he graduated from the 4th grade of school. A laborer, in 1923-1924 he was a laborer on the construction of highways in the Shamkhor region (now Shamkir region).
In the army since September 1925. Until 1926, he studied at the Armenian United Military School (Yerevan, Armenia), and in 1929 he graduated from the Transcaucasian Military Infantry School (Tbilisi, Georgia). He served as a platoon commander of a rifle regiment, a platoon commander, a party bureau secretary, and a company commander of a separate local rifle battalion (in the Transcaucasian Military District).
In 1930, he participated in the liquidation of armed gangs in Transcaucasia as a platoon commander of the 7th Caucasian Rifle Regiment. Was injured.
Since 1934, he served as commander of a machine gun company, commander of a machine gun battalion and assistant chief of staff of a machine gun regiment (in the Transcaucasian Military District; Baku city, Azerbaijan). In 1937-1938 - head of the operations department of the headquarters of the air defense point in the city of Baku.
In August-October 1938 - chief of staff of an anti-aircraft machine-gun regiment (in the Transcaucasian Military District; Baku city), in 1938-1940 - assistant commander of an anti-aircraft machine-gun regiment for a combat unit (in the Leningrad Military District).
Participant in the Soviet-Finnish War: in November 1939 - March 1940 - assistant commander of the 2nd anti-aircraft machine gun regiment for combat units. On February 18, 1940 he was wounded.
From December 1940, he served as deputy commander of rifle regiments (in the North Caucasus Military District) and assistant chief of the operations department of the 19th Army headquarters (in the Kiev Special Military District).
Participant of the Great Patriotic War: in July-August 1941 - assistant head of the operational department of the 19th Army headquarters, in August 1941 - April 1942 - commander of the 395th (from September 1941 - 1st Guards) rifle regiment. He fought on the Western (July-August 1941), Bryansk (August-November 1941), Southwestern (November 1941 - March 1942) and Southern (March-April 1942) fronts. He took part in the Battle of Smolensk, the Elninsk and Oryol-Bryansk operations, defensive battles in the Voronezh direction and offensive battles in the Taganrog direction.
In September 1942, he graduated from an accelerated course at the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze, which was evacuated in the city of Tashkent (Uzbekistan).
In September 1942 - August 1944 - commander of the 3rd (from October 1943 - 20th Guards) mechanized brigade. He fought on the Kalinin (October 1942 - February 1943), North-Western (February-March 1943), Voronezh (April-September 1943) and 1st Ukrainian (November 1943 - August 1944) fronts. Participated in the Rzhev-Sychev and Demyansk operations, the Battle of Kursk, the Belgorod-Kharkov, Kyiv defensive, Zhitomir-Berdichev, Proskurov-Chernovtsy and Lvov-Sandomierz operations. On August 19, 1944, he was seriously wounded in the throat and sent to the hospital.
He particularly distinguished himself during the Proskurov-Chernovtsy operation. Small advance groups under his command with swift attacks liberated the cities of what is now the Ternopil region - Terebovlya (March 22, 1944), Kopychyntsi (March 23, 1944), Chortkiv (March 23, 1944) and Zalishchyky (March 24, 1944). After capturing the city of Zalishchiki, under enemy fire, he personally scouted a ford across the Dniester and was the first to cross in his tank to the right bank of the river, where the brigade captured a bridgehead.
For skillful command of the brigade and courage and heroism shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 26, 1944, Guard Colonel Babajanyan Hamazasp Khachaturovich awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
In September 1944 - May 1945 - commander of the 11th Guards Tank Corps. He fought on the 1st (November 1944 - March 1945 and March-May 1945) and 2nd (March 1945) Belarusian fronts. Participated in the Warsaw-Poznan, East Pomeranian and Berlin operations.
After the war, until June 1945, he continued to command the 11th Guards Tank Corps. In June 1945 - January 1947 - commander of the 11th Guards Tank Division (in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany).
In December 1948 he graduated from the Higher Military Academy (Military Academy of the General Staff). From March 1949 - chief of staff of the army, and in September 1950 - May 1956 - commander of the 2nd Guards Mechanized Army (in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany). In May 1956 - January 1958 - commander of the 8th mechanized (from June 1957 - tank) army (in the Carpathian Military District).
From January 1958 - 1st Deputy Commander of the Carpathian Military District (headquarters in the city of Lviv), in June 1959 - September 1967 - Commander of the Odessa Military District. In September 1967 - May 1969 - head of the Military Academy of Armored Forces.
Since May 1969 - Chief of Tank Forces of the Soviet Army.
Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine in 1960-1971. Deputy of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR of the 6th-7th convocations (in 1962-1970) and of the RSFSR of the 8th-9th convocations (since 1971).
Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces (1975). Awarded 4 Orders of Lenin (04/26/1944; 11/15/1950; 02/17/1966; 09/15/1976), the Order of the October Revolution (05/4/1972), 4 Orders of the Red Banner (02/17/1942; 06/13/1943; 11/6/19). 45; 30.12. 1956), orders of Suvorov 1st (05/29/1945) and 2nd (04/06/1945) degrees, Kutuzov 1st degree (12/18/1956), Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree (01/3/1944), 2 orders of the Red Army Stars (06/27/1943; 11/3/1944), medals; Polish orders "Renaissance of Poland" 4th degree (10.1973), "Virtuti Military" 4th degree (12/19/1968), "Cross of Grunwald" 3rd degree, Bulgarian order "September 9, 1944" 1st degree with swords (09/14/1974), the Mongolian Order of the Red Banner of Battle, and other foreign awards.
Honorary citizen of the cities of Yelnya (1970, Smolensk region), Zalishchyky (Ternopil region, Ukraine) and Gdynia (1970, Poland; deprived of 09/22/2004).
In Moscow and Odessa, memorial plaques were installed on the houses where he worked. A square in Moscow, streets in the cities of Odessa, Zhmerinka and Kazatin (Vinnitsa region, Ukraine), the village of Svobody (within the city of Pyatigorsk, Stavropol Territory), as well as a secondary school in the city of Emchiadzin (Armenia) are named after him.
Note: In May 1945, for successful actions during the storming of Berlin, he was nominated for the second Gold Star medal, but received the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree.
Essays:
Roads of victory. M., 1972;
Roads of victory. 2nd edition. M., 1975;
Roads of victory. 3rd edition. M., 1981;
Roads of Victory (in Armenian). Yerevan, 1988;
Tank raids. 1941-1945. M., 2009;
Childhood and adolescence. Yerevan, 2012.Military ranks:
Major (12/11/1939)
Lieutenant Colonel (1941)
Colonel (05/22/1943)
Major General of Tank Forces (07/11/1945)
Lieutenant General of Tank Forces (3.08.1953)
Colonel General (12/28/1956)
Marshal of Armored Forces (28.10.1967)
Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces (04/29/1975)
They may become generals, but they are probably born military men. In the 20th century, at its beginning, the Karabakh village of Chardakhlu lived in solitude and patriarchy. For one and a half thousand years, strong men and faithful Armenian gampras - wolfhounds - lived here - they helped the shepherds in the mountains. Women were strong in their own way, which is why this land gave so many wonderful warriors.
Hamazasp Babajanyan was born in Chardakhlu in 1906. Even by local standards, the boy turned out to be irrepressible and pugnacious, for which everyone called him a nickname that denoted a guy who was desperately crazy. “He hits first, then greets,” they said. Once during a school lesson, when the teacher offended him for no reason at all, Amazasp snatched a Mauser from his bag - they barely took it away. The teacher and the student got into a fight, they were separated with difficulty: Amazasp did not tolerate injustice, regardless of their faces. In the army school in Yerevan he will become the “Kid”, and a quarter of a century later he will be the “Black Panther”, that’s what the Germans, scared to death, will call him.
Chardakhlu is a record-breaking village. It is hardly possible to find another population comparable to it that would produce so many heroes. Of the more than a thousand Chardakhlin residents who participated in the Great Patriotic War, two became marshals - Babajanyan and Bagramyan, exactly a dozen generals, seven became Heroes of the Soviet Union. Someone probably counted the number of senior officers and the number of orders and medals they earned. By the way, Chardakhlin residents also became generals and prominent military men in Tsarist Russia. So Amazasp, who grew up in such a village, was simply doomed to become a military man. The conscription into the Red Army took place in 1925, and almost immediately the soldier was sent to Yerevan, to an infantry school. The future marshal studied at various military educational institutions a lot, even with the rank of major general, both before and after the war.
After graduating from the first two military schools, in the fall of 1929, Babajanyan was sent to the 7th Caucasian Regiment, where he commanded a platoon, and in battles with numerous gangs at that time he received his first wound. Then - command of a machine gun company and battalion, an air defense point. In the fall of 1938, Babajanyan accepted a machine gun regiment, so he left the Transcaucasian and arrived at the location of the Leningrad Military District. From here begins a completely new story of ascent to the heights of military glory.
At the end of 1940, a busy redeployment of troops began. Contrary to popular belief that the Red Army command firmly believed in the inviolability of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact, all officers understood that war was about to begin. Amazasp Khachaturovich himself recalled that they were afraid to talk about it directly and made do with hints and allegories. A special regime of secrecy was observed so as not to provoke the Nazis, and the pact was seen as a chance to buy time to prepare for a big fight.
In April 1941, Babajanyan received a new assignment - to the 19th Army under the command of General Konev, which was moving from the depths of the country to the west. And here everything became completely clear - the detention of spies, violations of airspace, the largest concentrations of troops visible to the naked eye on the other side of the Polish border.
Babajanyan learned about the war late at night on June 22. What was allowed turned into a cruel reality: the first destruction in Kyiv, the first orphans on its streets... And Konev’s 19th Army - four corps, no joke! - received an order to move to Vitebsk. Began.
It was really bad in the beginning. The Soviet fronts were in tatters, and the 19th, virtually deprived of air and tank support, fought desperately at Smolensk, but withdrew as slowly as it could. Konev reported in his reports that he had been standing still for 4 days, without retreating, without having a single full-fledged combat formation.
But by the end of the second month, everyone, including the authors of the “blitzkrieg” themselves, realized that it had failed, and not least thanks to the 19th Army. In the winter of 1941-42, the division in which Babajanyan’s rifle regiment fought was part of the Southwestern Front. Here, it would seem, was the first success - advance in the Mius direction, but after a couple of months the troops retreated to their previous positions.
Two months later, Babajanyan, after a short study at the General Staff Academy, accepted a mechanized brigade. He was constantly tormented by the question: will he cope? After all, before this he had only seen tanks from the side. The command knew this and therefore entrusted him with a brigade that was temporarily not involved in battles - there was time to learn.
At times Babajanyan found himself on the dangerous edge. In November 1943, it turned out that due to the offensive at Stalingrad, the brigade was thrown into battle in less than 24 hours. There was no time left to develop a strategy and prepare, but the order must be carried out. And then, as if on purpose, there was a new order - the offensive was postponed, to begin in just a couple of hours. The officer who conveyed this message, Babajanyan, according to his temper, almost beat him up. Sending a completely unprepared brigade into battle was suicide. Babajanyan categorically stated that the order was impossible to fulfill - unheard of disobedience in any army.
The consequences of refusing to speak immediately were not long in coming. Officers with submachine guns arrived at the brigade's location to deliver the brigade commander to the chairman of the military tribunal. They were, however, taken to the commander of the 22nd Army, Lieutenant General Yushkevich.
He asked a natural question - why the combat order was not carried out, to which Babajanyan reasonably replied that an immediate action would simply entail the execution of a brigade that was not ready for battle, and his refusal was based on the desire to save people.
The matter ended with a joint discussion of tomorrow's offensive, and the next morning the enemy's defenses were broken through to a depth of 12 kilometers. This was the beginning of the offensive of the Soviet army along the entire front - from the Caucasus to Leningrad.
Babajanyan moved on tanks, leaning out of the hatch up to his waist. By that time he did not have a single intact rib left. They could have killed a thousand times, but trouble happened once, and not during the war, but in 1956, during the suppression of the Budapest uprising - a shrapnel pierced the trachea, the operation was successful.
In 1944, after the defeat of the Germans in Western Ukraine, the liberation of Przemysl and Lvov, the path to the Vistula opened - a direct road to Germany. For the impeccable organization of the offensive and brilliant command of the troops, Babajanyan received a Hero's star and a tank corps - command.
On March 5, 1945, Zhukov called a meeting and announced that the attack on Berlin should begin immediately. The reason given was, to put it mildly, the not very allied behavior of the allies - the desire at all costs to enter the capital of the Third Reich before the Red Army. Therefore, the task of the first importance was to play ahead.
The Germans resisted furiously, but on April 21, Babajanyan’s tank corps entered the suburbs of Berlin. The boundaries of the cauldron in which the city found itself were inexorably shrinking, but a group of almost 300,000 selected troops still remained inside it. And the tanks of Babajanyan’s corps hit the Reichstag with direct fire. On April 30, the Victory Banner was hoisted on it.
Hamazasp Babajanyan was awarded the title of Marshal of Armored Forces in 1967. After the war, he was the chief of staff of the army, the commander of the military districts in Ukraine, headed the Military Academy of Armored Forces, and in May 1969 he was appointed commander of the armored forces of the Soviet Army, already becoming the chief marshal.
Frequent visits to his native village - to a completely “non-warlike village,” as he wrote in his memoirs, always became an event. If it was time to dig potatoes, the marshal took off his uniform, rolled up his sleeves, took a shovel, and... the two behind him barely had time to collect. He then returned to check that everything had been collected.
Then, of course, they feasted. He could do that too. Together with Marshal Bagramyan and fellow villagers, they drank more than one bottle of local vodka, well over 70 degrees, which was called “the death of a donkey.” Then they sent to neighboring villages for childhood friends and enemies, and the feast continued in an expanded format.
There is either a true story or a legend that one day, after similar gatherings - in another place, however (Babadzhanyan then commanded the Odessa Military District, far after the war), it occurred to the marshal to fly a fighter. To Turkey. The headphones were blasting: “Comrade commander, you have flown across the state border!”
Babajanyan flew a little over Turkish territory and returned back. The result was an official protest from the Turkish side and 18 days of house arrest for the marshal. They decided not to punish him more severely.
Babajanyan always worked, even during his last illness, in the hospital, people came to him on business, and the work did not stop for a day. There were also many things planned for November 1, 1977. There were unsigned papers lying around, visitors were waiting for an audience, and, finally, they just had to visit him. Only that night the marshal was gone. He was 71 years old.
Born into a peasant family. Armenian by nationality.
Since 1925 he served in the Red Army. He received his education at the Transcaucasian Military Infantry School (1929) and the Military Academy of the General Staff (1948). Since 1929, after graduating from military infantry school, he served in the Transcaucasian Military District as a platoon commander of the 4th Caucasian Rifle Regiment, participated in battles with counter-revolutionary gangs, and was wounded. Later he was elected secretary of the party bureau of a separate battalion, appointed commander of a company, battalion, assistant chief of staff of the regiment and head of the headquarters of the air defense point in Baku Azerbaijan. From October 1938 - assistant commander of a machine gun regiment in the Leningrad Military District.
Participant of the Soviet-Finnish War 1939-1940.
From October 1940 - commander of a rifle regiment in the 165th rifle division of the North Caucasian Military District, then - head of the operational department of the headquarters of the 19th Army under Lieutenant General I.S. Konev, one of the “deep” armies that were formed and advanced to the western border.
On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War - from July 1941. First he commanded the 395th Rifle Regiment of the 127th Rifle Division (until April 1942), which became the 1st Guards Rifle Regiment of the 2nd Guards Rifle Division on September 18, 1941, from September 1942 - commander of the 3rd Mechanized Brigade (from October 1943 - 20th Guards), which by the end of the war became the 20th Guards Mechanized Zaleschinsky Order of Lenin, Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov, Bogdan Khmelnitsky brigades - one of the most distinguished military units of the armed forces strength
On August 18, 1944, commanding a group of brigades of the 1st Guards Tank Army, A.Kh. Babajanyan was seriously wounded.
From August 25, 1944 to May 1945 - commander of the 11th Guards Carpathian-Berlin Red Banner, Order of Suvorov tank corps of the 1st Tank Army, replacing General A.L. Getman
During the Great Patriotic War, troops under the command of A. Kh. Babajanyan were mentioned 15 times in the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the USSR I. V. Stalin, according to this indicator he is one of the 30 most outstanding commanders of the operational-tactical level in the armed forces of the USSR.
In 1949-1950 - chief of staff of the army, commander of the army, in 1950-1959. - 1st Deputy Commander of the Carpathian Military District.
in 1959-1967 - commander of the troops of the Odessa Military District, in 1967-1969. - Head of the Military Academy of Armored Forces named after. Marshal of the Soviet Union Malinovsky, in October 1967 he was awarded the military rank of Marshal of the Armored Forces. In 1969-1977 - Chief of Tank Forces of the Soviet Army. Since April 29, 1975 - Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces.
Amazasp Khachaturovich Babajanyan died on November 1, 1977 in Moscow, and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Awards
- Hero of the Soviet Union (April 26, 1944);
- four Orders of Lenin;
- Order of the October Revolution;
- four Orders of the Red Banner;
- Order of Suvorov, 1st degree;
- Order of Suvorov, 2nd degree;
- Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree;
- Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree;
- two Orders of the Red Star;
- USSR medals;
- foreign awards.
Memory
- In memory of A. Kh. Babajanyan, in 1978, a square in the North-Western Administrative District of Moscow was named after him.
Babajanyan Amazasp Khachaturovich was born on February 5 (18), 1906 in the village of Chardakhly, Elisavetpol district, Elisavetpol province (now the village of Chanibel, Shamkir district, Republic of Azerbaijan). Armenian. From a poor large (8 children) peasant family.
He graduated from the 4th grade of a rural school in the village of Chardakhly (1921). He worked on his father's farm and was a laborer. In 1924 he joined the Komsomol and became the first secretary of the rural Komsomol cell.
Member of the CPSU(b) since 1928 (p/b No. 0290177, 03321111). Hero of the Soviet Union (04/26/1944).
Died on November 1, 1977 from acute heart failure. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
Education. Graduated from the Transcaucasian Military Infantry School (1929), accelerated course of the VA named after. Frunze (1942), VVA named after. Voroshilov (1948).
Participation in wars and military conflicts. Participant in the fight against banditry in the Caucasus (1930). Injured. Soviet-Finnish war. On February 18, 1940 he was wounded. Great Patriotic War (from July 1941). Twice seriously wounded: in July 1943 at the Kursk Bulge and in April 1945 in Berlin. Hungarian Events (1956).
Service in the Red Army. From September 16, 1925 - cadet of the Armenian United Military School (Yerevan). September 3, 1926 to October 3, 1929 - cadet of the Tiflis Infantry School, from September 1927 - Transcaucasian Infantry School (Tbilisi).
From September 1, 1929 - platoon commander of the 7th Caucasian Rifle Regiment of the Caucasian Red Banner Army (Kirovabad, now Ganja). From February 23 to March 9, 1930, he participated in the fight against bandit formations in Azerbaijan, from April 13 to May 6, 1930, in the suppression of the Nukha-Zagatala uprising in Azerbaijan.
From October 3, 1931 - platoon commander of the 27th local rifle battalion (Transcaucasian Military District). From February 10, 1932 - secretary of the party bureau of the 27th department. local rifle battalion. From April 1, 1933 to March 31, 1934 - acting company commander of the 27th department. local rifle battalion.
From March 31, 1934 - commander of the rifle company of the 3rd machine gun regiment (Baku, Transcaucasian Military District). From November 17, 1935 - battalion commander of the 3rd machine gun regiment. From January 5, 1936 - assistant chief of staff of the 3rd machine gun regiment. From October 22, 1937 - acting head of the 1st department of the headquarters of the air defense point (Baku, Transcaucasian Military District). From August 8, 1938 - acting Chief of Staff of the 3rd Machine Gun Regiment. By order of NKO No. 01688 of October 17, 1938, he was appointed assistant commander for the combat unit of the 2nd machine gun regiment (Leningrad Military District). In this position he participated in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940, and was wounded in battle on February 18, 1940.
By order of NKO No. 05651 of December 23, 1940, he was appointed Deputy Commander of the 493rd Infantry Regiment (North Caucasus Military District). By order of NKO No. 0136 of January 13, 1941, he was appointed Deputy Commander of the 751st Infantry Regiment of the 165th Infantry Division (North Caucasus Military District). From April 1941 - assistant chief of the 1st department of the operational department of the 19th Army headquarters.
On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War - from July 1941, when he arrived as part of the army on the Western Front. Since July 1941 - commander of the 395th Infantry Regiment of the 127th (from September 1941 - 2nd Guards) Infantry Division on the Western, Bryansk and Southwestern Fronts. Participated in the Smolensk defensive battle, the Elninsk offensive operation, and the Oryol-Bryansk defensive operation. On May 7, 1942, he left to study at the Military Academy.
From August 1 to September 1942 - student of the accelerated course at the Military Academy of the Red Army named after. M. V. Frunze.
From September 1942 - commander of the 3rd mechanized brigade (from October 23, 1943 - 20th Guards) as part of the 3rd (from October 23, 1943 - 8th Guards) mechanized corps of the 1st (with April 1944 - 1st Guards Tank Army. He fought on the Kalinin, North-Western, Voronezh and 1st Ukrainian fronts. He took part in the Battle of Kursk, Zhitomir-Berdichev and Korsun-Shevchenko offensive operations.
The brigade of Colonel A. Kh. Babajanyan especially distinguished itself during the Proskurov-Chernovtsy operation. For skillful leadership of the combat operations of units of the 20th Guards. mechanized brigade and its successful crossing of the Dniester River, for personal courage, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 26, 1944, Guard Colonel Babadzhanyan Amazasp Khachaturovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
From August 25, 1944 commander of the 11th Guards. tank corps. By order of NKO No. 041 of 02/05/1945, he was confirmed in his position. The corps took part in the Lviv-Sandomierz, Vistula-Oder, East Pomeranian and Berlin offensive operations. The tankers of the corps have a combat record of liberated cities: Tomaszow, Lodz, Kutno, Gostyn, Łowicz, Łenczyca, Gniezen, Tczew, Wejherowo, Puck, Poznan, Schiefelbein, Putzig, Labes, Kolberg, Gdynia, Köpenick and Berlin.
On June 10, 1945, the corps was reorganized into the 11th Guards. tank division. Babajanyan remained as division commander.
From January 17, 1947 to December 22, 1948 - student at the Higher Military Academy named after. K. E. Voroshilova (Military Academy of the General Staff).
By order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR No. 0320 dated March 14, 1949, he was appointed chief of staff of the 2nd Guards. mechanized army (Group of Soviet occupation forces in Germany). By order of the USSR Ministry of Defense No. 02110 dated September 18, 1950, the commander of the 2nd Guards was appointed. mechanized army. From May 30, 1956 - commander of the 8th mechanized (from June 4, 1957 - 8th tank) army (Carpathian Military District). Participant in Operation Whirlwind in 1956. By Order of the USSR Ministry of Defense No. 059 dated January 11, 1958, he was appointed 1st Deputy Commander of the Troops and Member of the Military Council of the Carpathian Military District. By order of the USSR Ministry of Defense No. 0921 dated June 3, 1959, he was appointed Commander of the Troops and Member of the Military Council of the Odessa Military District.
By order of the USSR Ministry of Defense No. 252 dated September 22, 1967, he was appointed head of the Military Academy of Armored Forces named after Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Ya. Malinovsky. By order of the USSR Ministry of Defense No. 0575 dated May 17, 1969, he was appointed head of the tank forces of the Soviet Army and Member of the Military Council of the Ground Forces.
Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 6th-7th convocations (in 1962-1970). Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of the 8th and 9th convocations. Deputy of the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR. Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
Lived in the hero city of Moscow.
Military ranks: major (NKO Order No. 02574 dated December 11, 1938); Lieutenant Colonel (South Western Front Order No. 029 of 1941); Colonel (NKO Order No. 03070 dated May 22, 1943); Major general t/v (Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 1683 of 07/11/1945); lieutenant general t/v (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 205 of 08/03/1953); Colonel General (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1634 of December 28, 1956); Marshal of Armored Forces (Decree of the USSR PVS No. 2060 of October 28, 1967); Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces (Decree of the USSR PVS No. No. dated April 29, 1975).
Awards: four Orders of Lenin (26.04.1944, 15.11.1950, 17.02.1966, 15.09.1976), Order of the October Revolution (04.05.1972), four Orders of the Red Banner (17.02.1942, 13.06.1943, 6.11.1945, 30.1 2.1956 ), Order of Suvorov, 1st degree (05/29/1945), Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree (12/18/1956), Order of Suvorov, 2nd degree (04/06/1945), Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree (01/03/1944), two Orders of the Red Star (06/27/1945). 1943, 03.11.1944), Order “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR”, III degree, medals, foreign orders and medals, including the orders “Renaissance of Poland”, “People’s Republic of Bulgaria” with swords.
Honorary citizen of the cities of Yelnya (Smolensk region, 1970), Zalishchyky (Ternopil region, Ukraine), Gdynia (Poland, 1972). A square in Moscow, a street in Odessa, and a secondary school in Emchiadzin (Armenia) are named after him. Memorial plaques were installed in Moscow and Odessa.