The hero who covered the embrasure with his body. Alexander sailors
Alexander Matveevich Matrosov. Born on February 5, 1924 in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk) - died on February 27, 1943 near the village of Chernushki (now Pskov region). Hero of the Soviet Union (June 19, 1943).
Alexander Matrosov was born on February 5, 1924 in the city of Yekaterinoslav (later renamed Dnepropetrovsk, and now Dnepr).
According to another version, Matrosov’s real name is Shakiryan Yunusovich Mukhamedyanov, and his place of birth is the village of Kunakbaevo, Tamyan-Katay canton of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now Uchalinsky district of Bashkortostan).
At the same time, Matrosov himself called himself Matrosov.
He was brought up in the Ivanovsky (Mainsky district) and Melekessky orphanages in the Ulyanovsk region and in the Ufa children's labor colony. After finishing 7th grade, he worked in the same colony as an assistant teacher.
After the start of the Great Patriotic War, Sailors repeatedly made written requests to be sent 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 school cadets, a volunteer as part of a marching company, he went to the Kalinin Front.
From February 25, 1943 at the front, he served 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.
The feat of Alexander Matrosov (official version)
On February 27, 1943, the 2nd battalion received an order to attack a strong point in the area of the village of Chernushki, Loknyansky district, Kalinin region (from October 2, 1957 - Pskov region).
As soon as the Soviet soldiers entered the forest and reached the edge, they came under heavy enemy fire - three machine guns in bunkers covered the approaches to the village. Assault groups of two 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-piercing soldiers, but the machine gun from the third bunker continued to shoot through the entire ravine in front of the village. Attempts to suppress it were unsuccessful.
Then the Red Army soldiers Pyotr Ogurtsov and Alexander Matrosov crawled towards the bunker. On the approaches to the bunker, Ogurtsov was seriously wounded, and Sailors 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 rose to attack, fire was opened again from the bunker. Then Matrosov stood up, rushed to the bunker and closed the embrasure with his body.
At the cost of his life, he contributed to the accomplishment of the unit’s combat mission.
He was buried there in the village, and in 1948 his ashes were reburied in the city of Velikiye Luki, Velikie Luki Region (since October 2, 1957 - Pskov Region).
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 19, 1943, Red Army soldier Alexander Matrosov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union “for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown.”
The order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated September 8, 1943 stated: “The great feat of Comrade Matrosov should serve as an example of military valor 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 included in the lists of the 1st company of this regiment.
Alexander Matrosov became the first Soviet soldier to be permanently included in the unit lists.
The feat of Alexander Matrosov (alternative version)
In post-Soviet times, other versions of Matrosov’s death began to be considered.
According to one version, Matrosov was killed on the roof of the bunker when he tried to throw grenades at it. Having fallen, he closed the ventilation hole to remove the powder gases, which made it possible for the soldiers of his platoon to make a throw while the machine gunners tried to throw off his body.
A number of publications have stated that Alexander Matrosov’s feat was unintentional. According to one of these versions, Matrosov actually made his way to the machine gun nest and tried to shoot the machine gunner or at least prevent him from shooting, but for some reason he fell on the embrasure (he stumbled or was wounded), thereby temporarily blocking the machine gunner’s view. Taking advantage of this hitch, the battalion was able to continue the attack.
In other options, the problem of the rationality of trying to close the embrasure with your body was discussed when there were other ways to suppress enemy fire. According to a number of experts, the human body could not serve as any serious obstacle to the bullets of a German machine gun.
A version was also put forward that Sailors was hit by a machine-gun burst at the moment when he stood 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 articles, only the feat of Alexander Matrosov is discussed and there is no mention of several hundred similar cases when other methods of suppressing fire also did not lead to success and the slightest delay could lead to the death of other fighters.
Pyotr Ogurtsov, who tried to suppress the German bunker together with Matrosov, fully confirms the official version of his comrade’s feat.
However, other cases were not studied in as much detail as the death of Matrosov, and any attempt to suppress fire from a bunker at close range (which in itself is a feat) often led to the death of soldiers near the embrasure. And this gave commanders and political instructors the opportunity to include information about repeating Matrosov’s feat in the battle report.
It should be noted that a number of cases of deaths of soldiers at the embrasure of an enemy bunker were noted before 1943. However, reports of such exploits begin to multiply only after the story of the death of Alexander Matrosov was replicated.
Alexander Matrosov. The truth about the feat
In Soviet literature, Matrosov's feat became a symbol of courage and military valor, fearlessness and love for the Motherland. For ideological reasons, the date of the feat was moved to February 23 and dedicated to the Day of the Red Army and Navy, although in the personal 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 Sailors got to the front only on February 25th.
In total during the war years Matrosov’s feat was repeated by more than 400 people(about fifty - even before Matrosov’s death), one warrior even survived.
A memorial complex has been erected at the site of the death of Alexander Matrosov.
Monuments to Alexander Matrosov are installed in the cities: Barnaul; Velikie Luki; Dnieper; Durtyuli; Isheevka - in one of the village parks; Ishimbay - in the central city park of culture and recreation named after. A. Matrosova; Koryazhma; Krasnoyarsk; Kurgan - near the former cinema named after Matrosov (now Toyota technical center), monument (1987, sculptor G. P. Levitskaya); Oktyabrsky is a monument to Alexander Matveevich Matrosov in the village of Naryshevo, a street in the city is named in his honor; Salavat - bust of Matrosov (1961), sculptor Eidlin L. Yu.; St. Petersburg (in 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 Ministry of Internal Affairs school and a memorial to A. Matrosov and M. Gubaidullin in Victory Park (1980); Kharkiv; Sibay, Republic of Bashkortostan, bust; Halle (Saxony-Anhalt) - GDR (1971, re-casting of the Sailors' monument in Ufa); memorial sign: town. Mikhailo-Kotsyubinskoe.
A number of streets and parks in many cities of Russia and the CIS countries are named after Alexander Matrosov; OJSC "RiM" (Mine named after A. Matrosov) - Magadan business unit of the company "Polyus Gold International" (Tenkinsky district of the Magadan region); passenger motor ship of the Passazhirrechtrans company operating on the Yenisei on the Krasnoyarsk - Dudinka line; Museum of Komsomol Glory named after. Alexandra Matrosova (Velikiye Luki).
Alexander Matrosov in art:
Filmed about Alexander Matrosov movies: “Private Alexander Matrosov”; "Alexander Matrosov. The truth about the feat" (documentary, 2008).
Books about Alexander Matrosov:
Anver Bikchentaev - The right to immortality (M.: Soviet writer, 1950)
Bikchentaev A. G. - The eagle dies on the fly (Ufa, 1966)
Nasyrov R.Kh. - Where are you from, Sailors? (Ufa, 1994)
Matrosov Alexander Matveevich was born in Yekaterinoslavl in 1924, on February 5th. He died in 1943, on February 27th. Alexander Matrosov was a submachine gunner, a Red Army soldier, and a member of the Komsomol. He received the title for his selfless act during the war. Matrosov's feat was widely covered in literature, magazines, newspapers and cinema.
Biography of Matrosov Alexander Matveevich. Childhood
According to the official version, he received his upbringing in orphanages and a labor colony in Ufa. After completing seven classes, he began working in the last colony. According to another version, Alexander Matrosov’s name was Mukhamedyanov Shakiryan Yunusovich. He took his future surname at a time when he was a street child (he ran away from home after his father’s new marriage), and upon entering the orphanage he signed up under it. From that time on, his name began to be called Matrosov Alexander Matveevich. There is another version according to which the boy’s mother, saving him from starvation after being left alone without a husband, sent him to the Melekessky orphanage, from where he was transferred to the Ivanovo orphanage in the Mainsky district. The papers from orphanages about Matrosov’s stay in them have not been preserved.
Patriotic version of childhood
According to this option, the dispossessed peasant Matvey Matrosov was sent to Kazakhstan. There he went missing. His son, left an orphan, ended up in an orphanage, but soon ran away from there. Homeless, Sasha reached Ufa, where he was enrolled in a labor colony. During his stay there, he became an excellent example for other students: he was a successful boxer and skier, a GTO badge holder, an amateur poet, and a political informant. At the age of 16, Matrosov was admitted to the Komsomol. Then he was appointed assistant teacher. But the activist was caught with one pupil. For this, Sasha was expelled from the Komsomol. When the war began, he was working at a factory.
What is the heroism of the Red Army soldier?
What is Matrosov's feat? Briefly speaking, the Red Army soldier rushed to the embrasure, ensuring the advance of our riflemen. However, to this day, researchers argue which version is accurate. During the period of perestroika, they began to talk about the incorrectness of the original version. As an argument, the fact was cited that from a regular shot, for example, in the hand from a rifle, a person loses his balance. A powerful burst from a machine gun, in this case, should throw the body several meters away. According to Kondratiev (a front-line writer), the feat of Alexander Matrosov was that he climbed onto the roof of the bunker and tried to tilt the machine-gun muzzle towards the ground. However, a historian who studies the events in which Alexander Matrosov participated argues with him. The truth about the feat that he accomplished, according to his version, is that the hero tried to shoot the crew through the ventilation hole. The Germans could not simultaneously fire at our soldiers and fight off the Red Army. This is how Alexander Matrosov died. The truth about the Red Army soldier’s feat may not become clear, but his action allowed our riflemen to cross the area under fire.
Beginning of the war
Sailors repeatedly submitted written requests to be sent to the front. He was called up for service in 1942 and began studying at the infantry school near Orenburg. However, the very next year, 1943, together with his classmates he went to the Kalinin Front as a volunteer in a marching company. Since the end of February, already at the front, Alexander Matveevich Sailors served in the 2nd separate rifle battalion of the 91st Siberian separate volunteer brigade named after. Stalin. He was unable to finish school, as he died at the very beginning of the war in a battle near Chernushka. The hero was buried there, and then his ashes were reburied in the Pskov region, in the city of Velikiye Luki. For his heroic deed, Alexander Matveevich Sailors was posthumously nominated for the Hero of the USSR award.
Official version of events
The 2nd battalion, in which Sailors served, received an order to attack a strong point near the village of Chernushki. But when the Soviet soldiers reached the edge, having passed through the forest, they came under heavy fire from the Germans: in the bunkers, three machine guns blocked the approach to the village. Assault groups of 2 people were sent to suppress the firing points. Two machine guns were suppressed by groups of armor-piercing and machine gunners. But the third firing point was still firing. All attempts to silence the machine gun were unsuccessful. Then privates Alexander Matrosov and Pyotr Ogurtsov advanced to the bunker. On the approaches, the second fighter was seriously wounded. Sailors decided to complete the attack alone. Having approached the embrasure from the flank, he threw two grenades. The machine-gun fire stopped. But as soon as our soldiers rose to attack, fire was opened again. Then Private Sailors stood up and, rushing towards the bunker, covered the embrasure with his body. Thus, at the cost of his own life, the Red Army soldier contributed to the fulfillment of the combat mission assigned to the unit.
Alternative versions
According to a number of authors, Alexander Matveevich Matrosov was killed already on the roof of the bunker, while trying to throw grenades at it. Then, falling, he closed the ventilation hole that removed the powder gases. This is what gave our soldiers a break and allowed them to make a move while the Germans removed Matrosov’s body. Some publications expressed opinions about the “unintentionality” of the Red Army soldier’s action. It was said that Sailors actually, having approached the machine gun nest, tried, if not to shoot the enemy machine gunner, then at least to prevent him from shooting further, but for some reason (he stumbled or was wounded) he fell into the embrasure.
So, with his body, he unintentionally blocked the view of the Germans. The battalion, taking advantage of this, albeit small, hitch, was able to continue its offensive.
Controversies
Some authors tried to talk about the rationality of Matrosov’s action, contrasting his attempt to close the embrasure with the fact that other methods could have been used to suppress enemy firing points. So, for example, one of the former commanders of a reconnaissance company says that the human body cannot be any effective or significant obstacle to a German machine gun. There is even a version put forward that Sailors was hit by a burst of fire when he tried to rise up to throw a grenade. To the soldiers behind him, it looked as if he was trying to shield them from machine-gun fire.
Propaganda significance of the act
The feat of Alexander Matrosov in Soviet propaganda was a symbol of military valor and courage, the dedication of a soldier, his fearless love for his Motherland and unconditional hatred of the occupiers. For ideological reasons, the date of the heroic deed was moved to February 23rd, coinciding with the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy. At the same time, in the personal list of irretrievable losses of the Second Rifle Separate Battalion, Alexander Matrosov was recorded on the 27th, along with five other Red Army soldiers and 2 junior sergeants. As a matter of fact, the future hero got to the front only on February 25th.
Conclusion
Despite the large number of contradictions, both in Matrosov’s biography itself and in the versions of his actions, his act will not cease to be heroic. In many cities of the former republics of the Soviet Union, streets and squares still bear the name of the hero. Many soldiers, both before and after Matrosov, committed similar acts. According to a number of authors, such people justified the senseless death of people in battles. The soldiers were forced to launch frontal attacks on enemy machine-gun firing points, which they did not even try to suppress during artillery preparation. Sailors Alexander Matveevich became not only a hero of the Soviet Union, but also a national hero of Bashkiria.
Yunus Yusupov, who, according to one version, was his father, after Sasha’s death proudly walked around his village, saying that “his Shakiryan” was a real person. True, his fellow villagers did not believe him, but this did not diminish the father’s pride in his son. He believed that Shakiryan should become the second, after Salavat Yulaev, Bashkir national hero. Mystification strengthens mythical ideas: the hero becomes more humane, livelier, more convincing. Regardless of who he really was - Shakiryan or Sasha, the son of a Bashkir or Russian - the main moments of his life are indisputable. His destiny included orphanages, a colony, work and service. But besides everything, in his life there was also a feat in the name of freedom of the Soviet people.
From school, everyone is familiar with the legend of Alexander Matrosov - the legend of how a brave Soviet soldier rushed with his chest into the embrasure of a bunker (a wooden-earthen firing point), which silenced the Nazi machine gun and ensured the success of the attack. But we are all growing up and doubts begin to appear: why rush into the bunker embrasure if there are aviation, tanks, and artillery. And what can be left of a person who has come under the aimed fire of a machine gun?
According to the version of Soviet propaganda, Private Alexander Matrosov allegedly accomplished his feat on February 23, 1943 in a battle near the village of Chernushki near Velikiye Luki. Posthumously, Alexander Matveevich Matrosov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The feat was allegedly accomplished on the day of the 25th anniversary of the Red Army, and Sailors was a fighter in the elite Sixth Volunteer Rifle Corps named after Stalin - these two circumstances played an important role in the creation of the state myth. But in fact, Alexander Matrosov died on February 27...
According to the official version, Alexander Matveevich Matrosov was born on February 5, 1924 in the city of Yekaterinoslav, and was brought up in the Ivanovsky (Mainsky district) and Melekessky orphanages of the Ulyanovsk region and in the Ufa children's labor colony. After finishing 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 his place of birth is the village of Kunakbaevo, Tamyan-Katay canton of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now Uchalinsky district of Bashkortostan). At the same time, Matrosov himself called himself Matrosov.
Contrary to popular belief, Sailors was not a fighter in the penal battalion. Such rumors arose because he was a pupil of a children's colony for juvenile criminals in Ufa, and at the beginning of the war he worked as a teacher there.
According to the official version, on February 27, 1943, the 2nd battalion received an order to attack a strong point in the area of the village of Chernushki, Loknyansky district, Kalinin region (since October 2, 1957 - Pskov region). As soon as the Soviet soldiers entered the forest and reached the edge, they came under heavy enemy fire - three machine guns in bunkers covered the approaches to the village. Assault groups of two 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-piercing soldiers, but the machine gun from the third bunker continued to shoot through the entire ravine in front of the village. Attempts to suppress it were unsuccessful. Then the Red Army soldiers Pyotr Ogurtsov and Alexander Matrosov crawled towards the bunker. On the approaches to the bunker, Ogurtsov was seriously wounded, and Sailors 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 rose to attack, fire was opened again from the bunker. Then Matrosov stood up, rushed to the bunker and closed the embrasure with his body. At the cost of his life, he contributed to the accomplishment of the unit’s combat mission.
The first report on Matrosov’s feat stated: “In the battle for the village of Chernushki, Komsomol member Matrosov, born in 1924, committed a heroic act - he closed the bunker embrasure with his body, which ensured the advancement of our riflemen forward. Chernushki was taken. The offensive continues.” This story, with minor changes, was reproduced in all subsequent propaganda. For decades, no one thought that Alexander Matrosov’s feat was contrary to the laws of nature. After all, it is impossible to close a machine gun embrasure with your body. Even one rifle bullet hitting the hand inevitably knocks a person down. And a point-blank machine-gun burst will throw any, even the heaviest, body from the embrasure. Front-line soldiers remember how bursts of fire from a German MG machine gun cut trees in half...
The question arises of the rationality of trying to close the embrasure with your body when there are other ways to suppress enemy fire. The human body could not serve as any serious obstacle to the bullets of a German machine gun.
A propaganda myth, of course, is not able to abolish the laws of physics, but it can make people forget about these laws. Throughout the war, over 400 Red Army soldiers accomplished the same feat as Alexander Matrosov, and some before him.
Several "sailors" were lucky - they survived. Being wounded, these soldiers threw grenades at enemy bunkers. One might say that a kind of terrible competition of units and formations was taking place, each of which considered it an honor to have its own Sailor. Fortunately, it was very easy to enroll a person as a “sailor.” Any Red Army soldier who died near an enemy bunker was suitable for this. In reality, events did not develop as reported in newspaper and magazine publications.
As the front-line newspaper wrote in hot pursuit, Matrosov’s corpse was found not in the embrasure, but in the snow in front of the bunker. What could really be happening?
It was only in post-Soviet times that other versions of the event began to be considered.
According to one version, Matrosov was killed on the roof of the bunker when he tried to throw grenades at it. Having fallen, he closed the ventilation hole to remove the powder gases, which made it possible for the soldiers of his platoon to make a throw while the machine gunners tried to throw off his body.
A number of publications have stated that Alexander Matrosov’s feat was unintentional. According to one of these versions, Matrosov actually made his way to the machine gun nest and tried to shoot the machine gunner or at least prevent him from shooting, but for some reason he fell on the embrasure (he stumbled or was wounded), thereby temporarily blocking the machine gunner’s view. Taking advantage of this hitch, the battalion was able to continue the attack.
There is a version that Sailors was hit by a machine gun burst at the moment when he stood up to throw a grenade, which for the soldiers behind him looked like an attempt to cover them from fire with his own body.
Perhaps Matrosov was able to climb onto the bunker (eyewitnesses saw him on the roof of the bunker), and he tried to shoot the German machine gun crew through the ventilation hole, but was killed. Dropping the corpse to free an outlet, the Germans were forced to cease fire, and Matrosov’s comrades during this time covered the area under fire. The German machine gunners were forced to flee. The sailors really, at the cost of their lives, ensured the success of the attack of their unit. But he didn’t throw himself at the embrasure with his chest - this method of fighting enemy bunkers is absurd. However, for the propaganda myth, the fanatical image of a fighter who despised death and threw himself at a machine gun with his chest was necessary. The Red Army soldiers were encouraged to launch frontal attacks on enemy machine guns, which they did not even try to suppress during artillery preparation. The example of Matrosov justified the senseless death of people. It seems that Stalin’s propagandists dreamed of turning Soviet people into something like Japanese kamikazes, so that they would die fanatically, without thinking about anything.
The clever scribblers from GlavPUR and front-line propaganda timed the death of Matrosov to coincide with February 23 - the 25th anniversary of the Red Army, and the fact that "Matrosov's feat" had already been accomplished by others more than 70 times before - they did not care... On the personal list of irrevocables 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 Sailors only got to the front on February 25...
Each generation has its own idols and heroes. Today, when movie and pop stars are placed on the podium, and scandalous representatives of bohemia are role models, it’s time to remember those who truly deserve eternal memory in our country. 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 feat, sacrificing their lives in the name of the independence of the Fatherland. Over time, memory erases small details of events and makes the colors faded, making its own adjustments and explanations for what happened. Only many years later it became possible to reveal some mysterious and untold 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 in the form in which they were presented by the Soviet media, it is necessary to immediately make a reservation that the research carried out by historians and memoirists in no way detracts from the merits of a man whose name has been borne on the streets of many for more than half a century cities. No one set out to denigrate him, but the Truth requires the establishment of justice and the disclosure of true facts and names that were at one time distorted or simply left unattended.
According to the official version, Alexander was from Dnepropetrovsk, having gone through the Ivanovo and Melekessky orphanages in the Ulyanovsk region and the Ufa labor colony for children. On February 23, 1943, his battalion received the task of destroying a 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 joint forces of submachine 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 Sailors approached the embrasure alone. He threw a couple of grenades and the machine gun fell silent. But as soon as the Red Guards rose to attack, shooting rang out again. Saving his comrades, Sailors found himself at the bunker with one swift throw and covered the embrasure with his body. The resulting moments were enough for the fighters to get 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 the Russian language.
After lengthy searches and research by 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 a closer look.
The first questions arose when, in response to an official request for the place of birth indicated by the hero himself in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, a clear answer was received that the birth of a child with that name and surname in 1924 was not registered by any registry office. Further searches in Soviet times by the main researcher of Matrosov's life, Rauf Khaevich Nasyrov, led to public censure of the writer and accusations of revisionism of the heroic pages of wartime. Only much later was he able to continue the investigation, which resulted in a number of interesting discoveries.
Following barely noticeable “breadcrumbs”, the bibliographer initially, based on eyewitness accounts, suggested and then practically proved that the hero’s real name is Shakiryan, and his true place of birth is the small village of Kunakbaevo, which is located in the Uchalinsky district of Bashkiria. A 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 suggested the idea of checking the authenticity of the remaining biographical data.
None of Shahiryan’s close relatives were alive at that time. However, during further searches, childhood photographs of the boy were found, which were miraculously preserved by former fellow villagers. A detailed examination of these photographs and comparison of them with later photographs of Alexander Matrosov allowed scientists from the Forensic Research Institute in Moscow to give a final conclusion about the identity of the people depicted in them.
Few people know that there is another Alexander Matrosov, the namesake of the main person in 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, Sailors, together with other intelligence officers, 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 fascists, until the main forces of our troops arrived. Alexander survived that memorable battle, successfully ended the war and died in his native Ivanovo on February 5, 1992 at the age of seventy-three.
During conversations with Alexander Matrosov’s fellow soldiers, as well as residents of the village where he was born, and former pupils of orphanages, a picture of the life of this famous man gradually began to emerge. Shakiryan Mukhamedyanov’s father returned from the Civil War as an invalid and could not find a permanent job. Due to this, 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 and his little son begged for alms, wandering through the neighbors' yards. Very soon a stepmother appeared in the house, with whom young Shahiryan was never able to get along, having run away from home.
His short wanderings ended with the boy ending up in a reception center for children under the NKVD, and from there he was sent to modern Dimitrovgrad, which was then called Melekess. It was in this orphanage that he first appears as Alexander Matrosov. But in official documents he was recorded under this name when he entered the colony located in the village of Ivanovka on February 7, 1938. There, the boy named a fictitious place of birth and a city in which he, in his own words, had never been. Based on the documents issued to him, all sources subsequently indicated exactly this information about the place and date of birth of the boy.
Why was Shakiryan recorded under this 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 visor 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 unkind attitude towards the national people. And given his liking for maritime symbols, it was not difficult to come up with a name he liked, as many street children did at that time. However, at the shelter they still remembered that Sashka was called not only Shurik the sailor, but also Shurik-Shakiryan, as well as “Bashkir” - because of the teenager’s dark skin, which again confirms the identity of the two personalities in question.
Both fellow villagers and the orphanage's pupils spoke of Sashka as a lively and cheerful guy who loved to strum the guitar and balalaika, knew how to tap dance and was the best at playing "knucklebones". They even remembered the words of his own mother, who at one time said that because of his dexterity and excessive activity, he would become either a capable young man or a criminal.
The generally accepted version of the hero’s biography says that Matrosov worked for some time as a carpenter at a 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 section of his biography contains colorful references to what a wonderful example Alexander was for his peers at the time he became one of the best boxers and skiers in the city, and what wonderful poetry he wrote. To create a greater effect in the fictional story, a lot is said about Matrosov’s active work as a political informant, as well as about the fact that the hero’s father, being a communist, died from a bullet from a fist.
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 kept in different museums: one in Moscow, the other in Velikiye Luki. Which of the documents is genuine 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 about the guy’s life appears almost a year later. For violating the terms of the subscription that he would leave Saratov within 24 hours, 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 Criminal Code of the RSFSR. An interesting fact is that on May 5, 1967, the Supreme Court of the USSR returned to the cassation hearing of Matrosov’s case and overturned the verdict, apparently so as not to tarnish the name of the hero with unpleasant details of his life.
Actually, after the court’s decision, the young man ended up in a labor colony in Ufa, where he served his entire sentence. 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 be sent 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, together with other cadets of the Krasnokholmsky school, where Sailors was enrolled in October 1942 after the colony. Due to the difficult situation on all fronts, the graduating cadets, who had not been fired upon, were sent in full force as reinforcements to the Kalinin Front.
Here follows a new discrepancy between real facts and the officially accepted biography of this person. In accordance with the documents, Alexander Matrosov was enlisted in the rifle battalion, 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. Having read about this later in the newspapers, Matrosov’s fellow soldiers were extremely surprised by this information, because in fact, 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 was such an important date changed not only in newspapers, but also in many historical documents describing the great feat? Anyone who grew up in Soviet times is well aware of how the government and many other official bodies liked to mark various, even the most insignificant events, with memorable anniversaries and dates. This is what 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 Soviet soldiers. Obviously, it was decided to coincide the feat of fighter Alexander Matrosov with 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 definitely knock him down. What can we say about a machine gun burst at point blank range? Moreover, the human body cannot serve as any serious barrier to machine gun bullets. Even the first notes of front-line newspapers said that Alexander’s corpse was found not in the embrasure, but in front of him in the snow. It is unlikely that Matrosov threw himself at her with his chest; this would have been 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 his body fell onto the vent, blocking the possibility of venting the powder gases. While dumping the corpse, the Germans hesitated and ceased fire, and Matrosov’s comrades were able 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 a misconception that Alexander's feat was the first of its kind. However, it is not. Many documented facts have been preserved of how, 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 commissar of a tank company, who sacrificed himself on August 24, 1941 during the attack on 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: “I should make nails out of these people ...”), the battle near Novgorod on January 29, 1942 is described, in which three soldiers rushed to the enemy pillboxes at once - 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 a similar 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 Hero of the USSR, but their names are familiar only to meticulous historians, as well as fans of historical wartime articles. Most of the brave heroes remained unknown, and subsequently dropped out of official chronicles altogether. Among them were the dead soldiers of the assault groups, who fought that very day next to Matrosov and managed not only to suppress the enemy’s bunkers, but also, 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 were built and streets were named in cities throughout Russia, precisely 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 included 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 despised death in the name of saving his comrades, pursued another rather unpleasant goal. Neglecting artillery preparation, the authorities encouraged the Red Army soldiers to launch deadly frontal attacks on enemy machine guns, justifying the senseless loss of life as an example of a brave soldier.
Even when finding out the real history of the hero, whom many generations of residents of our country know as Alexander Matrosov, after clarifying his personality, place of birth, individual pages of his biography and the essence of the heroic act itself, his feat is still undeniable and remains a rare example of unprecedented courage and valor! The feat of a very young youth who spent only three days at the front. We sing a song to the madness of the brave...
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
Ctrl Enter
Noticed osh Y bku Select text and click Ctrl+Enter
Friends, in this article we will talk about one of, perhaps, the most famous heroes of the Great Patriotic War, Alexander Matrosov. This glorious fellow (at the time of his heroic death, Sasha was only 19 years old!) ensured the success of the offensive against enemy positions at the cost of his own life. For which he was subsequently awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. But let's talk about everything in order.
Beginning of 1943. The Great Patriotic War is in full swing. Soviet troops continue to suffer huge losses, but the enemy’s plan for the lightning-fast seizure of our Motherland has already been thwarted... Fighting is taking place throughout almost the entire European territory of the USSR.
Alexander Matrosov then served as a submachine gunner of the 2nd in a separate rifle battalion of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade named after I.V. Stalin. On February 27, 1943, his battalion took part in battle near the village of Chernushki, Loknyansky district, Kalinin region.
It is known that upon reaching the edge of the village near the village, Soviet soldiers came under heavy fire from three German bunkers. Two of them were neutralized by the efforts of the assault groups, but attempts to destroy the third were unsuccessful - the stormtroopers sent to it were destroyed. The fire of the third German machine gun did not allow the entire battalion to continue moving forward, shooting through the entire ravine in front of the village.
Then two young Red Army soldiers - Pyotr Aleksandrovich Ogurtsov (born in 1920) and Alexander Matveevich Matrosov (born in 1924) - crawled to the ill-fated bunker. Peter was seriously wounded on the approaches to an enemy machine gun, and, assessing the current situation, Sasha decided to continue the task assigned to them alone.
Having reached the enemy embrasure, Sailors threw two grenades from the flank, and the machine gun fell silent. When his colleagues rose to continue moving, the deadly weapon suddenly began to ring again. And at that very moment, Sasha made a decision that would forever inscribe his name in the annals of the history of the Second World War, and Russian history in general. He closed the embrasure of the enemy bunker with his body, thereby allowing the battalion to continue moving! At the cost of his own life, this brave young man contributed to the accomplishment of the combat mission.
A few words about Sasha Matrosov’s childhood. The boy never knew either his father or his mother - he was an orphan. The guy was brought up in an orphanage in the Ulyanovsk region, and then in a labor colony in the city of Ufa. In October 1942, Matrosov was drafted into the army, and in November of the same year he went to the front of his own free will. In February 1943, Sasha passed away...
This guy is an example of unshakable will and fearlessness. Not everyone can consciously (Matrosov managed to overcome even the basic instincts of self-preservation) throw himself with his chest into the embrasure of an enemy bunker so that your colleagues remain alive and complete the combat mission...
The feat of Alexander Matrosov is an excellent example of boundless courage and measured self-sacrifice, and that is why all people living in the vast expanses of our vast Motherland are obliged to know, honor and remember about it! Especially representatives of the younger generation.