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Matrosov's feat. How the famous hero of the Great Patriotic War actually died. Hero of the day. Alexander Matrosov

Alexander Matveevich

Matrosov Alexander Matveevich - submachine gunner of the 2nd separate battalion of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade named after I.V. Stalin of the 6th Stalinist Siberian Volunteer Rifle Corps of the 22nd Army of the Kalinin Front, Red Army soldier. September 8, 1943 by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR I.V. Stalin, the name of Matrosov was assigned to the 254th Guards Rifle Regiment, and he himself was forever enlisted in the lists of the 1st company of this unit. This was the first order of the NPO of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War about the enrollment of the fallen Hero forever in the lists of the military unit.

Born February 5, 1924 in the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk - the administrative center of the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine). Russian. Member of the Komsomol. He lost his parents early. 5 years was brought up in the Ivanovo regime orphanage(Ulyanovsk region). In 1939 he was sent to a car repair plant in the city of Kuibyshev (now Samara), but soon escaped from there. By the verdict of the people's court of the 3rd section of the Frunzensky district of the city of Saratov dated October 8, 1940, Alexander Matrosov was convicted under article 192 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to two years in prison for violating the passport regime (Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR on May 5, 1967, this sentence canceled). He served time in the Ufa children's labor colony. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he repeatedly applied with written requests to send him to the front.

He was drafted into the Red Army by the Kirov District Military Commissariat of the city of Ufa, Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in September 1942 and sent to the Krasnokholmsky Infantry School (October 1942), but soon most of the cadets were sent to the Kalinin Front.

In the army since November 1942. He served as part of the 2nd separate rifle battalion of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade named after (later the 254th guards rifle regiment of the 56th guards rifle division, Kalinin Front). For some time the brigade was in reserve. Then she was transferred near Pskov to the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Big Lomovaty Bor. Right from the march, the brigade entered the battle.
On February 27, 1943, the 2nd battalion received the task of attacking a stronghold in the area of ​​the village of Pleten, west of the village of Chernushki, Loknyansky district of the Pskov region. As soon as our soldiers passed through the forest and reached the edge of the forest, they came under heavy enemy machine gun fire - three enemy machine guns in bunkers covered the approaches to the village. One machine gun was suppressed by an assault group of machine gunners and armor-piercers. The second bunker was destroyed by another group of armor-piercers. But the machine gun from the third bunker continued to shell the entire hollow in front of the village. Efforts to silence him were unsuccessful. Then the Red Army soldier Alexander Matrosov crawled towards the bunker. He approached the embrasure from the flank and threw two grenades. The gun was silent. But as soon as the fighters went on the attack, the machine gun came to life again. Then Matrosov got up, rushed to the bunker and closed the embrasure with his body. At the cost of his life, he contributed to the combat mission of the unit.

He was buried in the village of Chernushki, Loknyansky district, and in 1948 the ashes of A.M. Matrosov was reburied in the city of Velikiye Luki, Pskov Region, on the left bank of the Lovat River at the intersection of Rosa Luxembourg Street and the Alexander Matrosov Embankment.

A few days later, the name of Alexander Matrosov became known throughout the country. The feat of Matrosov was used by a journalist who happened to be with the unit for a patriotic article. At the same time, the date of the death of the Hero was postponed to February 23, timed to coincide with the birthday of the Red Army. Despite the fact that Alexander Matrosov was not the first to perform such an act of self-sacrifice, it was his name that was used to glorify the heroism of Soviet soldiers. Subsequently, over three hundred people committed a similar heroic deed. The feat of Alexander Matrosov became a symbol of courage and military prowess, fearlessness and love for the Motherland.

Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 19, 1943 for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against fascist german invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, the Red Army soldier Matrosov Alexander Matveevich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Awarded the Order of Lenin (posthumously).

Each generation has its idols and heroes. Today, when movie and pop stars are put on the podium, and scandalous representatives of bohemia are role models, it's time to remember those who really deserve eternal memory in ours. We will talk about Alexander Matrosov, with whose name Soviet soldiers went into the meat grinder of the Great Patriotic War, trying to repeat his heroic deed, sacrificing their lives in the name of the independence of the Fatherland. Over time, the memory erases the small details of events and makes the colors fade, making its own adjustments and explanations of what happened. Only many years later it became possible to reveal some mysterious and unsaid moments in the biography of this young man, who left such a significant mark in the glorious annals of our Motherland.

Anticipating the angry reactions of those who are inclined to leave the facts as they were presented by Soviet means mass media, it is necessary to immediately make a reservation that the studies carried out by historians and memoirists in no way detract from the merits of a person whose name has been borne by the streets of many cities for more than half a century. No one set out to denigrate him, but the Truth requires the establishment of justice and the disclosure of true facts and names, which at one time were distorted or simply ignored.

According to the official version, Alexander was originally from Dnepropetrovsk, having passed through the Ivanovo and Melekessky orphanages Ulyanovsk region and the Ufa labor colony for children. On February 23, 1943, his battalion received the task of destroying the Nazi stronghold near the village of Chernushki, in the Pskov region. However, the approaches to the settlement were covered by three machine-gun crews hidden in bunkers. Special assault groups were sent to suppress them. Two machine guns were destroyed by the combined forces of machine gunners and armor-piercers, but attempts to silence the third were unsuccessful. In the end, privates Pyotr Ogurtsov and Alexander Matrosov crawled towards him. Soon Ogurtsov was seriously wounded, and Matrosov got to the embrasure alone. He threw a couple of grenades, and the machine gun fell silent. But as soon as the Red Guards went on the attack, the shooting rang out again. Saving his comrades, Matrosov ended up at the bunker with one swift throw and closed the embrasure with his body. The received moments were enough for the fighters to be able to come closer and destroy the enemy. The feat of the Soviet soldier was described in newspapers, magazines and films, his name became a phraseological unit in Russian.

After a long search and research work people who studied the biography of Alexander Matrosov, it became obvious that only the date of birth of the future hero of the USSR, as well as the place of his death, deserves trust. All other information was quite contradictory, and therefore deserved closer consideration.

The first questions arose when an official request for the place of birth indicated by the hero himself in the city of Dnepropetrovsk received a clear answer that the birth of a child with that name and surname in 1924 was not registered by any registry office. Further searches in Soviet time Rauf Khayevich Nasyrov, the chief researcher of the life of Matrosov, led to public censure of the writer and accusing him of revisionism of the heroic pages of wartime. Only much later, he was able to continue the investigation, which resulted in a number of interesting discoveries.
Following the barely noticeable “breadcrumbs”, the bibliographer initially assumed, based on eyewitness accounts, and then practically proved that the real name of the hero is Shakiryan, and the real place of his birth is the small village of Kunakbaevo, which is located in the Uchalinsky district of Bashkiria. The study of documents in the Uchalinsky City Council made it possible to find a record of the birth of a certain Mukhamedyanov Shakiryan Yunusovich on the very day indicated by the official biographical version of the life of Alexander Matrosov, February 5, 1924. Such a discrepancy in the data on the place of birth of the famous hero led to the idea of ​​verifying the authenticity of the rest of the biographical data.

None of Shahiryan's close relatives were alive at that time. However, in the course of further searches, childhood photographs of the boy were found, which were miraculously preserved by former fellow villagers. A detailed examination of these photographs and their comparison with later photographs by Alexander Matrosov allowed scientists from the Research Institute of Forensic Examinations in Moscow to make a final conclusion about the identity of the people depicted on them.

Few people know that there is another Alexander Matrosov, the namesake of the main person of the article, who also became a Hero of the Soviet Union. Born on June 22, 1918 in the city of Ivanovo, during the Great Patriotic War, he rose to the rank of senior sergeant, platoon commander of a reconnaissance company. In the summer of 1944, Matrosov, along with other scouts, captured a bridge on the Belarusian Svisloch River, which was a tributary of the Berezina. For more than a day, a small group held it, repelling the attacks of the Nazis, until the main forces of our troops approached. In that memorable battle, Alexander survived, successfully ended the war and died in his native Ivanovo on February 5, 1992 at the age of seventy-three.

During conversations with fellow soldiers of Alexander Matrosov, as well as residents of the village where he was born, and former pupils of orphanages, a picture of the life of this famous person. Shakiryan Mukhamedyanov's father returned from the Civil War disabled and could not find a permanent job. In this regard, his family experienced great financial difficulties. When the boy was only seven years old, his mother died. It became even more difficult to survive, and often the father, along with his little son, begged for alms, wandering through the neighboring yards. Very soon, a stepmother appeared in the house, with whom the young Shahiryan could not get along in character, having run away from home.

Short wanderings ended with the fact that the boy ended up in a reception center for children through the NKVD, and from there he was sent to modern Dimitrovgrad, which was then called Melekess. It was in this orphanage that he first appeared as Alexander Matrosov. But in official documents, under this name, he was recorded when he entered the colony located in the village of Ivanovka on February 7, 1938. In the same place, the boy named a fictitious place of birth and a city in which, in his own words, he had never been. Based on the documents issued to him, all sources later indicated exactly this information about the place and date of birth of the boy.

Why was Shakiryan recorded under that name? His fellow villagers recalled that at the age of fifteen, in the summer of 1939, he came to his small homeland. The teenager was wearing a peakless cap and a striped vest under his shirt. Even then, he called himself Alexander Matrosov. Apparently, he did not want to indicate his real name in the colony because he knew about the general unfriendly attitude towards the nationalists. And with his sympathy for marine symbols, it was not difficult to come up with an appropriate name he liked, as many homeless children did at that time. However, the shelter still remembered that Sasha was called not only Shurik the sailor, but also Shurik-Shakiryan, as well as "Bashkir" - because of the dark skin of a teenager, which again confirms the identity of the two individuals in question.

Both fellow villagers and orphanage residents spoke of Sashka as a lively and cheerful guy who loved to strum the guitar and balalaika, knew how to tap and played “grandmothers” best of all. They even remembered the words of his own mother, who once said that because of his dexterity and excessive activity, he would become either a good fellow or a criminal.

The generally accepted version of the hero's biography says that Matrosov worked for some time as a carpenter at furniture factory in Ufa, but how he ended up in the labor colony, to which this enterprise was attached, is not said anywhere. But this segment of his biography contains colorful references to what an excellent example Alexander was for his peers at the time he became one of the best boxers and skiers in the city, what wonderful poetry he wrote. To create a heightened effect in a fictional story, a lot is said about active work Matrosov as a political informant, and also that the hero's father, being a communist, died from a fist bullet.

An interesting fact related to the fighter who accomplished the feat is the presence of at least two almost identical Komsomol tickets in the name of Alexander Matrosov. Tickets are stored in different museums: one in Moscow, the other in Velikiye Luki. Which of the documents is authentic remains unclear.

In fact, in 1939 Matrosov was sent to work at the Kuibyshev car repair plant. However, he soon fled from there due to unbearable working conditions. Later, Sasha and his friend were arrested for non-compliance with the regime. The next documentary evidence of the guy's life appears almost a year later. According to archival data, on October 8, 1940, Alexander Matrosov was sentenced by the Frunzensky District People's Court to two years in prison under Article 192 of the RSFSR Criminal Code for violating the terms of the subscription that he would leave Saratov within a day. An interesting fact is that on May 5, 1967, the Supreme Court of the USSR returned to the cassation hearing of the Matrosov case and overturned the verdict, apparently so as not to denigrate the name of the hero with the unpleasant details of his life.

Actually, after the court decision, the young man ended up in a labor colony in Ufa, where he completely served his term. Even at the very beginning of the war, seventeen-year-old Alexander, like thousands of his peers, sent a letter to the people's commissar of defense with a request to send him to the front, expressing his passionate desire to defend the Motherland. But he got to the front line only at the end of February 1943, along with other cadets of the Krasnokholmsk school, where Matrosov was enrolled in October 1942 after the colony. In connection with the difficult situation on all fronts, the cadets who had not been fired at full strength were sent as reinforcements to the Kalinin Front.

Here comes a new inconsistency real facts with the officially accepted biography of that person. In accordance with the documents, Alexander Matrosov was enlisted in the rifle battalion, which was part of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade, named after Joseph Stalin, on February 25. But the Soviet press indicates that Alexander Matrosov accomplished his feat on February 23. After reading about this later in the newspapers, Matrosov's brother-soldiers were extremely surprised by this information, because in reality the memorable battle in the Pskov region, not far from the village of Chernushki, which the battalion, in accordance with the order of the command, was supposed to recapture from the Germans, took place on February 27, 1943 .

Why so important date was changed not only in newspapers, but also in many historical documents describing a great feat? Everyone who grew up in the Soviet era is well aware of how the government and many other official bodies liked to time various, even the most insignificant events, with memorable anniversaries and dates. This happened in this case. The approaching anniversary, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Red Army, required "real confirmation" to inspire and raise the morale of the Soviet soldiers. Obviously, it was decided to coincide with the feat of the fighter Alexander Matrosov on a memorable date.

The details of exactly how events unfolded on that terrible February day, when a courageous nineteen-year-old boy died, are described in detail in many articles and textbooks. Without dwelling on this, it is only worth noting that the feat of Alexander Matrosov in the official interpretation clearly contradicts the laws of physics. Even one bullet fired from a rifle, hitting a person, will surely knock him down. What can we say about the machine-gun fire point-blank. In addition, the human body cannot serve as any serious barrier to machine-gun bullets at all. Even the first notes of front-line newspapers said that Alexander's body was found not on the embrasure, but in front of him in the snow. It is unlikely that Matrosov threw himself at her with his chest, this would be the most absurd way to defeat an enemy bunker. Trying to reconstruct the events of that day, the researchers settled on the following version. Since there were eyewitnesses who saw Matrosov on the roof of the bunker, most likely he tried to shoot or throw grenades at the machine-gun crew through the ventilation window. He was shot, and the body fell on the vent, blocking the possibility of removing powder gases. Dropping the corpse, the Germans hesitated and ceased fire, and Matrosov's comrades got the opportunity to overcome the area under fire. Thus, the feat really took place, at the cost of the life of the Sailors, he ensured the success of the assault on his detachment.

There is also an erroneous opinion that the feat of Alexander was the first of its kind. However, it is not. Many documented facts have been preserved, as already in the first years of the war, Soviet soldiers rushed to enemy firing points. The very first of them were Alexander Pankratov, a political instructor of a tank company, who sacrificed himself on August 24, 1941, during the attack of the Kirillov Monastery near Novgorod, and Yakov Paderin, who died on December 27, 1941, near the village of Ryabinikha in the Tver region. And in the “Ballad of Three Communists” by Nikolai Semenovich Tikhonov (the author of the famous phrase: “Nails would be made from these people ...”), the battle near Novgorod on January 29, 1942 is described, in which three fighters immediately rushed to enemy pillboxes - Gerasimenko, Cheremnov and Krasilov.

It also requires mentioning the fact that even before the end of March 1943, at least thirteen people - soldiers of the Red Army, inspired by the example of Alexander Matrosov, carried out such an act. In total, more than four hundred people performed a similar feat during the war years. Many of them were posthumously awarded and received the title of Heroes of the USSR, but their names are familiar only to meticulous historians, as well as lovers of historical wartime articles. Most of the brave heroes remained unknown, and subsequently fell out of the official chronicles altogether. Among them were the dead fighters of the assault groups, who fought on that very day next to Matrosov and managed not only to suppress the enemy’s bunkers, but also, by deploying fascist machine guns, to return fire on the enemy. In this context, it is very important to understand that the image of Alexander, in whose honor monuments are built and streets in cities all over Russia are named, just personifies all the nameless soldiers, our ancestors who gave their lives for the sake of victory.

Initially, the hero was buried where he fell, in the village of Chernushki, but in 1948, his remains were reburied in the cemetery of the city of Velikiye Luki, located on the banks of the Lovat River. The name of Alexander Matrosov was immortalized by Stalin's order of September 8, 1943. In accordance with this document, it was for the first time forever listed in the list of the first company of the 254th Guards Regiment, where Sasha served. Unfortunately, the leadership of the Red Army, creating an epic image of a fighter who scorned death in the name of saving his comrades, pursued another rather unpleasant goal. Neglecting artillery preparation, the authorities urged the Red Army soldiers to make deadly frontal attacks on enemy machine guns, justifying the senseless death of people by the example of a brave soldier.

Even when clarifying real history the hero whom many generations of the inhabitants of our country know as Alexander Matrosov, after clarifying his personality, place of birth, individual pages of his biography and the essence of the most heroic deed, his feat is still undeniable and remains a rare example of unprecedented courage and valor! The feat of a very young boy who spent only three days at the front. To the madness of the brave we sing a song...

Information sources:
-http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=597
-http://izvestia.ru/news/286596
-http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/
-http://www.pulter.ru/docs/Alexander_Matrosov/Alexander_Matrosov

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The names of the soldiers who covered the embrasures of enemy pillboxes and bunkers with their bodies are given in alphabetical order. The list was compiled on the basis of documents stored in the Archives of the USSR Ministry of Defense. The list does not include the names of heroes on which there is no exact data. All given data are specified according to the text.

Source: "Immortal feats" / Comp.: A.P. Kovalenko, A.A. Sgibnev. - M.: Military Publishing House, 1980. pp. 81 - 110

Additions to the list:

1. Guests of the site (guest book for 01.08.03) indicated a resource on the Internet, the information of which we provide below:

[From materials prepared by a veteran of the 80th Luban Order of Kutuzov, II degree, rifle division (1st guards division of the people's militia in Leningrad) A.M. Lead.]

In the regional book of memory of the city of Kemerovo, we came across the familiar surname of our brother-soldier without indicating the place of death and indicating the military rank - private - this is Ketov Vasily Petrovich, who on December 7, 1942 accomplished an immortal feat - he closed the embrasure of the enemy bunker with his body.

On December 7, 1942, according to the order of the commander of the 8th Army, General F.N. Starikov four groups of scouts of the 80th rifle division. (two - from the 153rd regiment, one - from the 218th regiment, and one - from the 100th separate divisional reconnaissance company) in the Gaitolovo - Tortolovo strip conducted reconnaissance in force with the task of capturing at any cost the control prisoners from the outposts 1st Infantry Division (presumably) of the enemy.

After a 35-minute artillery preparation and a volley of Katyushas, ​​our groups moved forward. Here is what the divisional newspaper "In the Battle for the Motherland" No. 306 of 12/11/42 wrote under the heading "A sense of duty is stronger than death":

“when heroes die on the battlefield, people say, the winged glory flies off the military banner and invisibly stands on guard of honor at the head of the dead ... During one of the recent battles with the enemy, a group of fighters crept up to the wire fences in a plastun way and rose not knowing fear, the Soviet soldiers had already gone part of the way when a machine gun from an enemy bunker forced them to lie down.

Corporal Ketov was ahead. He threw several grenades, but the enemy machine gun continued to work. Then the brave corporal rushed to the bunker and closed the embrasure with his body. The stragglers pulled themselves up. "Forward, for the Motherland!" shouted junior lieutenant Zholnin and, despite being mortally wounded, rushed forward, dragging the fighters along.

And when the slain hero fell, his place was taken by ml. Komsomol sergeant Comrade Lyutikov. So the brave sons of the Motherland died, our dear, beloved brothers in arms - corporal Ketov and ml. Lieutenant Zholnin. Only a few tens of meters they went forward. But, like true heroes, knights of the country, they gave their lives, as 28 Panfilov heroes gave it, like the Soviet pilot Gastello, like the partisan Liza Chaikina.

Corporal Ketov and ml. Lieutenant Zholnin knew what they were going to fight for. They saw death before them, but did not flinch before its cold breath. They loved life, but were not afraid of death, despised it. Love for the Motherland and hatred for the vile enemy conquered death. Forever go down in history immortal deeds heroes! Children and grandchildren will be proud of them, the country will honor their memory! Soviet soldiers do not weep over the lifeless bodies of even their dearest brothers. With the image of heroes before their eyes, they go into battle for the cause for which the best people gave their lives.

Forward - to the enemy, Soviet warrior! With you in battle 28 heroes - Panfilov, with you pilot Gastello, with you mother, father, your beloved, with you the immortal corporal Ketov and ml. Lieutenant Zholnin!"

The body of Ketov V.P. left on the battlefield. Corporal Ketov V.P. Posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War. Ketov Vasily Petrovich, born in Kemerovo, born in 1921, drafted on March 25, 1942 by the Kemerovo RVC, arrived in the unit on 10/15/42 (TsAMO, f.1228, op. 76611 C, d. 4, l. 5 ).

Later, in the divisional newspaper of the 80th SD "In the battle for the Motherland" No. 39 of February 23, 1943, a poem was placed by the poetess Vera Lyutova from the city of Yaroslavl about the hero - scout, which she sent to the newspaper of the unit.

"Ket Scout"

The place of the feat and death of Ketov V.P. - 2nd kilometer north of the 60th kilometer mark railway Mga - Volkhovstroy and 1.5 km north of the former village of Tortolovo, Mginsky (now Kirovsky) district of the Leningrad region - a forest.

Alexander Matveevich Matrosov (Shakiryan Yunusovich Mukhamedyanov)(February 5, 1924, Yekaterinoslav - February 27, 1943, the village of Chernushki, now the Pskov region) - Hero of the Soviet Union (06/19/1943), Red Army soldier, submachine gunner of the 2nd separate battalion of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade named after I.V. Stalin of the 6th Stalinist Siberian Volunteer Rifle Corps of the 22nd Army of the Kalinin Front, member of the Komsomol. Known for his self-sacrificing feat, when he covered the embrasure of the German bunker with his chest. His feat was widely covered in newspapers, magazines, literature, cinema and became a stable expression in the Russian language.

Biography

According to the official version, Alexander Matveevich Matrosov was born on February 5, 1924 in the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk), was brought up in Ivanovsky (Maryinsky district) and Melekessky orphanages in the Ulyanovsk region and in the Ufa children's labor colony. After graduating from the 7th grade, he worked in the same colony as an assistant teacher.

According to another version, Matrosov's real name is Shakiryan Yunusovich Mukhamedyanov, and he was born in the village of Kunakbaevo in the Tamyan-Katai canton of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now the Uchalinsky district of Bashkortostan). According to this version, he took the surname Matrosov when he was a homeless child (after he ran away from home after his father's new marriage) and signed up under it when he was assigned to an orphanage. At the same time, Matrosov himself called himself Matrosov.

After the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Matrosov repeatedly applied with written requests to send him to the front. In September 1942, he was drafted into the army and began his studies at the Krasnokholmsky Infantry School (near Orenburg), but already in January 1943, together with the cadets of the school, he volunteered as part of a marching company to the Kalinin Front. From February 25, 1943, he served at the front as part of the 2nd separate rifle battalion of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade named after I.V. Stalin (later the 254th guards rifle regiment of the 56th guards rifle division, Kalinin Front).

On February 27, 1943 (although the date February 23 was entered in the order to assign the 254th Guards Rifle Regiment named after Alexander Matrosov), he died heroically in battle near the village of Chernushki. He was buried there in the village, and in 1948 his ashes were reburied in the city of Velikiye Luki, Pskov Region.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 19, 1943, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, the Red Army soldier Matrosov Alexander Matveevich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR I. V. Stalin dated September 8, 1943, it is written: "The great feat of Comrade Matrosov should serve as an example of military prowess and heroism for all soldiers of the Red Army." By the same order, the name of A. M. Matrosov was assigned to the 254th Guards Rifle Regiment, and he himself was forever enrolled in the lists of the 1st company of this regiment.

Alexander Matrosov became the first Soviet soldier enlisted forever in the lists of the unit.

Feat

Official version

Soviet wartime postage stamp (No. 924, July 1944), dedicated to the feat of Alexander Matrosov (drawing by I. Dubasov).

On February 27, 1943, the 2nd battalion received the task of attacking a stronghold near the village of Chernushki (Loknyansky district of the Pskov region). As soon as the Soviet soldiers passed the forest and reached the edge, they came under heavy enemy fire - three machine guns in bunkers covered the approaches to the village. Two-man assault groups were sent to suppress the firing points.

One machine gun was suppressed by an assault group of machine gunners and armor-piercers; the second bunker was destroyed by another group of armor-piercers, but the machine gun from the third bunker continued to shoot through the entire hollow in front of the village. Efforts to silence him were unsuccessful. Then Private Pyotr Ogurtsov and Private Alexander Matrosov crawled towards the bunker. On the outskirts of the bunker, Ogurtsov was seriously wounded and Matrosov decided to complete the operation alone. He approached the embrasure from the flank and threw two grenades. The machine gun fell silent. But as soon as the fighters went on the attack, the machine gun came to life again. Then Matrosov got up, rushed to the bunker and closed the embrasure with his body. At the cost of his life, he contributed to the combat mission of the unit.

Alternative versions

In the post-Soviet period, other versions of the event began to be considered. This was facilitated by distrust of Soviet propaganda, the availability of alternative means of struggle, and some design features bunkers: a flat vertical front wall, which is difficult to grasp, and a wide, located relatively high above the ground or reinforced by a slope of the embrasure, which would help roll the body out of the line of fire.

According to one version, Matrosov was killed on the roof of the bunker when he tried to throw grenades at him. Falling down, he closed air vent to remove powder gases, which gave the fighters of his platoon a break for a throw while the enemy dumped his body.

In a number of publications, an assertion was made about the unintentional feat of Alexander Matrosov. According to one of these versions, Matrosov really made his way to the machine-gun nest and tried to shoot the machine gunner, or at least interfere with his shooting, but for some reason fell on the embrasure (stumbled or was wounded), thereby temporarily blocking the machine gunner's view. Taking advantage of this hitch, the battalion was able to continue the offensive.

In other versions, the problem of the rationality of trying to close the embrasure with your body was discussed in the presence of other ways to suppress enemy fire. According to the former reconnaissance company commander Lazar Lazarev, human body could not serve as any serious obstacle to the bullets of a German machine gun. He also puts forward the version that Matrosov was hit by a machine-gun burst at the moment when he got up to throw a grenade, which for the soldiers behind him looked like an attempt to cover them from fire with his own body.

In all these cases, only the feat of Alexander Matrosov was discussed and other similar cases were not mentioned.

propaganda value

In Soviet propaganda, the feat of Matrosov became a symbol of courage and military prowess, fearlessness and love for the Motherland. For ideological reasons, the date of the feat was postponed to February 23 and timed to coincide with the Day of the Red Army and Navy, although in the nominal list of irretrievable losses of the 2nd separate rifle battalion, Alexander Matrosov was recorded on February 27, 1943, along with five more Red Army soldiers and two junior sergeants, and Matrosov got to the front only on February 25th.

More than 400 people performed similar feats during the war years.

Awards

• Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously) - awarded June 19, 1943
• The order of Lenin

Memory

• He was buried in the city of Velikiye Luki.
• Matrosov's name was given to the 254th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, he himself is forever enlisted in the lists of the 1st company of this unit.
• A memorial complex was erected at the site of the death of Alexander Matrosov
• Monuments to Alexander Matrosov are installed in the following cities:
  • Velikiye Luki
  • Dnepropetrovsk
  • Dyurtyuli
  • Ishimbay - in the central city park of culture and recreation. A. Matrosova (1974), sculptor G. Levitskaya.
  • Koryazhma
  • Krasnoyarsk
  • Kurgan - near the former cinema them. Matrosov (now the Toyota technical center), a monument (1987, sculptor G.P. Levitskaya) .
  • Salavat - bust of Matrosov (1961), sculptor Eidlin L. Yu.
  • St. Petersburg (in the Moscow Victory Park and on Alexander Matrosov Street).
  • Tolyatti
  • Ulyanovsk
  • Ufa - a monument to Matrosov (1951, sculptor Eidlin L. Yu.) on the territory of the school of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a memorial to A. Matrosov and M. Gubaidullin in Victory Park (1980)
  • Kharkiv
  • settlement Bekshi, Rezekne District, Latvian SSR (K/Z named after Matrosov), bust.
  • Halle (Saxony-Anhalt) - GDR (1971), re-tide of the monument to Matrosov (Ufa).
• A number of streets and parks in many cities of Russia and the CIS countries are named after Alexander Matrosov.

Movies

• "Private Alexander Matrosov" (USSR, 1947)
• "Alexander Matrosov. The truth about the feat "(Russia, 2008)

Source: wikipedia.org

How the famous hero of the Great Patriotic War actually died

Exactly 75 years ago, in February 1943, one of the most famous feats of the Great Patriotic War was committed near the village of Chernushki near the city of Velikiye Luki. Private Alexander Matrosov, a soldier of the Sixth Volunteer Corps named after Stalin, closed the embrasure of the enemy bunker with his chest, thereby extinguishing the deadly machine-gun fire.

The hero died, but the unit where Matrosov served completed the combat mission of breaking through the enemy defenses. For this feat, Matrosov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union ...

There are legends about Matrosov, a movie was made, his act was set as an example for more than one generation of Soviet soldiers. However, it still remains a mystery who exactly Matrosov was and, most importantly, how real the feat he accomplished was.

Where is his street, where is his house

Natalia Mikhailova, a journalist from Ulyanovsk, writes in her article “The Secret of Alexander Matrosov”:

“A lot of controversy arose about the place of his birth. The official Soviet biography indicated the city of Yekaterinoslav, aka Dnepropetrovsk, Dnieper, in Ukraine. It also notes that the orphaned Sasha in the 1930s was brought up in the Melekessky orphanage and the Ivanovo regime orphanage in the Mainsky district, where he ended up after he was convicted of theft. All this is within the current Ulyanovsk, and then Kuibyshev region.

Another version of the description of the life of Alexander Matrosov says that the hero's name was Shakiryan Yunusovich Mukhamedyanov, he was born in the Bashkir village of Kunakbaevo, lost his mother early, ran away from home after his father's second marriage, was homeless, wandered until he ended up in an orphanage in Melekesse, where he invented himself a given name and surname of Russian origin and a Ukrainian city as the place of birth. From the Bashkir capital, the city of Ufa, or rather from the Ufa children's labor colony No. 2 under the NKVD of the USSR, Alexander Matrosov went to the front.

Natalya Mikhailova herself adheres to the version set forth by the Ulyanovsk writer and researcher Nina Dubovik, who dedicated the book “Anyway, I will be a man” to the hero. According to her version, Alexander was from the Volga region:

"Born in the village of Vysoky Kolok, Stavropol district, Samara province (now it is the Novomalyklinsky district of the Ulyanovsk region) in peasant family Matrosov Matvey Ivanovich, born in 1889 and Anna Nikolaevna, born in 1899. He was the only child in the family. M.I. Matrosov went through the First World War and civil war, the consequences of which brought him to the grave. He died before the birth of his son. At the very beginning of 1930, consumption took the life of Anna Matrosova. Shortly before her death, she asked to take the five-year-old Sasha to the Melekessky orphanage.

In general, the origin of Matrosov is still a mystery. It is only known that immediately after the start of the Great Patriotic War, Sasha repeatedly applied with written requests to send him to the front. In September 1942, he was drafted by the Kirov District Military Commissariat of the city of Ufa into the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and began his studies at the Krasnokholmsky Infantry School (Chkalov, now the Orenburg Region). In November 1942 he joined the Komsomol. On January 18, 1943, together with the cadets of the school, as a volunteer as part of a marching company, he went to the Kalinin Front, where in February he accomplished his feat.

Couldn't this just be?

It is curious, but real front-line soldiers (not those who hung around the whole war with high headquarters, but those who fought on the front line) always very reservedly assessed the feat of Matrosov. They had good reasons for that...

Retired captain Lazar Lazarev, who commanded a reconnaissance company during the war years, says:

“In the summer of forty-three, when after the decree on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to Alexander Matrosov, a propaganda campaign was in full swing to glorify his feat as an example to follow, we somehow discussed this story among ourselves. We, who saw what a machine-gun burst does to a person at close range, it was clear that it was impossible to close the embrasure with our body. What a person looks like after that - I don’t even want to remember ... Even a rifle bullet knocks a person down. And a machine-gun burst at point-blank range will drop any heaviest body from the embrasure ... ".

And here is the opinion of Vyacheslav Kondratiev, a well-known Russian writer who during the war years commanded penal units and fought in the same places as Matrosov:

“During the war, we were perplexed: why rush to the embrasure when you got so close to the enemy’s firing point? After all, you can throw a grenade into the wide bell of the bunker, you can open heavy automatic fire on it and thereby silence the enemy machine gun ... ".

In general, it turns out that the feat of Matrosov looks somewhat fantastic and almost unbelievable ...

So what really happened on that February tragic day in 1943?

Alas, it is very difficult to judge this today. The legend of the feat was compiled on the basis of a short report by the agitator of the political department of the Sixth Volunteer Corps, Senior Lieutenant Volkov. After the battle for the village of Chernushki, he wrote the following message:

“Komsomolets Matrosov, born in 1924, committed a heroic deed - he closed the embrasure of the pillbox with his body, which ensured the advancement of our shooters forward. Blackies are taken. The attack continues. I'll let you know the details when I get back."

But the senior lieutenant did not have time to give details. On the evening of the same day, he was killed. And in the political department of the corps, they seized on the report and the paper, already embellished with poetic details, went to higher authorities, like this: "The machine gun choked on the blood of the hero and fell silent." In the summer of 1943, Stalin himself learned about the feat, visiting the troops of the Kalinin Front. In September, he gave the following order:

"The great feat of Comrade Matrosov should serve as an example of military prowess and heroism for all soldiers of the Red Army."

After that, the propaganda machine to glorify Matrosov began to work with might and main.

And yet he was a true hero.

Only one testimony of a man who participated in the battle for the village of Chernushki has survived. This is the commander of the platoon where the hero served, Lieutenant Leonid Korolev. He published his story in a front-line newspaper. But we must remember that a propaganda campaign was already unfolding with might and main, and therefore the lieutenant, talking about what he saw, was under the strict control of military censors and political workers. From the text of his story it is clear that, setting out the details of the battle, Korolev is constantly confused. In one place, he talks about how Matrosov covered a machine gun with his body. And in another, he claims that after the battle, the body of the hero was found a few meters from the bunker ...

An attempt to reconstruct the feat was made only a few decades after the war. Here is Lazar Lazarev's version:

“On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Victory, I heard a radio broadcast about a hero who repeated the feat of Matrosov and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. This hero turned out to be alive and lived in one of the rural regions of Ukraine. He is very simple, I would say, in an everyday way, and therefore absolutely reliably told how the matter actually happened.

He was ahead of the attackers. He stood up to throw a grenade, and at that time a machine-gun burst lashed at him - it passed along a tangent, only injuring the hero. And those who were behind, it seemed that he closed the embrasure of the bunker. Nevertheless, the enemy machine gun was destroyed by him. In the unit where he served, he was considered killed, but he survived, although he became disabled and had no idea for fifty years that he was introduced to high award... Probably, something similar was done by Matrosov.

The writer Kondratiev has a slightly different vision of events:

“Sasha Matrosov, apparently, ran out of grenades and cartridges. And he was forced to act differently: bypassing the bunker, he climbed onto it and tried to press the barrel of the machine gun from above, but the German soldiers, grabbing his hands, dragged him down and killed him. This hitch was used by the company, which broke through the enemy defenses. This is a reasonable, skillful feat, and it’s not Matrosov’s fault that he didn’t have enough physical strength: at the front, we were all terribly malnourished ... ".

... In a word, Alexander Matrosov really did a heroic deed, beyond doubt. By the way, during the entire war, a feat like this was accomplished by hundreds of our soldiers. And Matrosov was not the first. So, back in the summer of 1941, political instructor Alexander Pankratov sacrificed his life by personally destroying an enemy bunker in the battle near Novgorod.

Apparently, Matrosov was simply “lucky” that Stalin himself drew attention to his act. However, the feat was still there - albeit as poetic as it was painted by army propagandists ...

Vadim ANDRYUKHIN.