Rodimtsev Alexander Ilyich 2nd time. We remember - the world remembers! we remember – the world remembers! unser gedenken - weltweites gedenken! Spanish Civil War

"BATTLE OF STALINGRAD. ROOT FRACTURE"

Twice Born

Ilya RODIMTSEV, member of the Victory Commanders Memorial Fund, Candidate of Economic Sciences

My father, General Rodimtsev, was born in the village. Sharlyk, Orenburg region, in a poor peasant family. Having lost his father early, he worked as a farm laborer since childhood, but went to school many kilometers from home. He dreamed of becoming a “red horseman,” and when he was drafted into the Red Army, he rose to the rank of colonel general, becoming a twice Hero Soviet Union and one of the most famous military leaders of the Soviet Army.
There are so many interesting and exciting things in my father’s combat biography that sometimes it’s even hard to believe that all this happened to one person. But of all the trials that befell him, the 140 days and nights of the battle for Stalingrad occupy a special place.
He began his battle with fascism in 1936 in civil war-torn Spain, when he taught machine guns to fighters of the international brigades in the small Spanish town of Albacete, when, west of Madrid, in the first battle, Captain Pavlito, as he was called in Spain, together with the Spanish fighters fought off the furious attacks by fascist mercenaries.
Upon returning to Moscow, he was summoned twice to the Kremlin, where he received his first military awards - first, two Orders of the Red Banner, and the second time, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. My father recalled how the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR M.I. Kalinin, presenting him with the highest award of the Motherland, said with a smile: “We meet often, Comrade Rodimtsev!” Then there were the pre-war years, pressed to the limit by studying at the Academy. Frunze and at the Academy of Command and Navigation Staff of the Air Force, the creation of airborne troops, and participation in military operations on the western borders of the USSR.

...His first battle was near Kiev in August 1941. Then there was the Volga, burning from oil spilled on it, the ruins of Stalingrad, burned German tanks near Prokhorovka, fierce battles on the bridgeheads beyond the Dnieper, the Vistula and on the Oder. Meeting with the allies on the Elbe and liberated grateful Prague. But the more Rodimtsev recalled the events of the war years, the more clearly he understood that the most important battle in his life was the battle for Stalingrad!
By order of the Headquarters, on the evening of September 11, 1942, the 13th Guards Rifle Division, commanded by Major General Rodimtsev, concentrated on the left bank of the Volga opposite the central part of Stalingrad. In less than a year of war, the division under his command won the title of Guards. It was created on the basis of the 5th airborne brigade, and this circumstance will play an important role in urban battles.
The situation in Stalingrad by this time was critical. The Nazis had already broken into the city; they were sure that there were only a few hours left before it was captured. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov wrote about the events of those days: “September 13, 14, 15 were difficult, too difficult days for the Stalingraders... The turning point in these difficult and, as at times it seemed, the last hours was created by the 13th Guards Division A.I. Rodimtseva. Having crossed to Stalingrad, she immediately counterattacked the enemy... On September 16, the division of A.I. Rodimtseva recaptured Mamayev Kurgan.”
The very crossing of the division across the burning Volga under enemy fire went down in the history of the war. General Rodimtsev emphasized that this was not just a crossing, but a crossing of a wide water barrier under the influence of the enemy, and without air and artillery cover. There was not enough ammunition, weapons, there was no intelligence information, but there was no longer time to hesitate...
The Nazis did not expect such a strong blow at a time when they were already celebrating their victory. 1st battalion 42nd Guards. The regiment quickly recaptured the station from the enemy and captured several buildings in the city center. But the next morning, up to two enemy divisions began an offensive in the area of ​​the station. Four times in one day the station changed hands, but remained with the guards. Recalling the battles in Stalingrad, my father especially emphasized that young soldiers and officers were often in the forefront. The commander of the leading battalion that threw the Germans off Mamayev Kurgan, Ivan Isakov, was only 20 years old! The company commanders are his peers; the oldest at the battalion headquarters was 28. In battles in the difficult conditions of urban ruins, where it was often difficult to understand where one was and where was a foe, the skills of paratroopers turned out to be in demand - the ability to fight surrounded, hand-to-hand, during the day and at night, good command of all types of weapons, including melee weapons, endurance and mutual assistance. It was these qualities of Rodimtsev’s guards that evened the odds when they had to fight with superior enemy forces and allowed them not only to survive in the hell of Stalingrad, but also to destroy the enemy.
A striking example of the courage, perseverance and combat training of the soldiers of the 13th Guards was the defense of Pavlov's House. For 58 days and nights, this immortal garrison of less than a platoon, in which soldiers of eight nationalities fought shoulder to shoulder, held Pavlov's House. On the personal map of Field Marshal Paulus, this house was marked as a fortress. It took the sixth German army, which he commanded, three days to capture Paris; in 28 days the Germans conquered Poland, but in two months they failed to break the resistance of a handful of fighters - Rodimtsev's guards! In his memoirs, my father wrote: “The captured German intelligence officers believed that the house was being defended by a battalion. Our army first learned about this house, then the whole country and, finally, the whole world... The glory of the defenders of this house will not fade for centuries.” Defending him, the soldiers of the 13th Guards saved civilians who were hiding in the basement of the house. Among them was a young woman with a baby daughter. All of them were rescued and taken beyond the Volga. The girl's name was Zina. Zinaida Petrovna Andreeva still lives in Volgograd, she heads the regional organization “Children of Military Stalingrad”. Throughout the post-war years, she maintains contact with the defenders of Pavlov’s House. They met with General Rodimtsev many times in Volgograd and Moscow. The fighters called her Rodimtsev’s goddaughter.
Division Commissioner Vavilov said about Rodimtsev: “Yes, he was fearless and brave, unusually calm in moments of mortal danger. But Alexander Ilyich possessed a character trait without which there cannot be a true military leader: he was mentally responsive, generous to his subordinates. In the division, General Rodimtsev not only knew many commanders and soldiers well. Another thing is important: he knew who was capable of what. He knew and boldly assigned the necessary task. The character of the commander became the character of the Thirteenth Guards.”
Marshal of the Soviet Union V.I. wrote very succinctly and sincerely about General Rodimtsev, after his death. Chuikov, who commanded the 62nd Army in Stalingrad: “Rodimtsev was ordinary, like everyone else, and a little extraordinary. Kind to friends, but irreconcilable to the enemies of his people. Ingenuous and savvy, you can’t fool him. Simple-minded, warm-hearted, flint, even strike fire. Complaisant and proud, if you offend in vain, he will not forgive. It was a folk nugget!”
General Rodimtsev himself, once answering a question from journalists about what Stalingrad was for him, replied: “It’s like being born a second time...”
The fame of the exploits of the soldiers of the 13th Guards Division, which the whole country learned about, played a cruel joke on General Rodimtsev. The Military Council of the 62nd Army nominated him for the Order of Suvorov. However, some high military officials could not calmly cope with his glory and canceled the performance. General Rodimtsev turned out to be almost the only commander of the formation who was not awarded for Stalingrad. But this misunderstanding was soon corrected, and he was awarded the Order of Kutuzov, II degree.
All the people with whom I had to talk about my father were sure that he received the second Hero Star for Stalingrad. But in fact, he was awarded this high award a second time in 1945 for his skillful leadership of troops during the crossing of the Oder and in a number of other operations at the final stage of the war.
From Stalingrad A.I. Rodimtsev and his guardsmen went only to the West, so that in May 45th they could meet the long-awaited Victory won at such a high price! From the ranks of the 13th Guards Division alone, 28 Heroes of the Soviet Union emerged, and almost all of them earned this award AFTER Stalingrad.
After the war, my father often came to Volgograd, met with fellow soldiers, city residents, and young people. It is difficult to find another city in our country in which literally at every step you encounter the memory of the heroes who defended it. It contains the streets of 13th Guards and Rodimtsev, memorial signs at the sites of battles and mass graves, an inscription on a stone wall near the Volga bank, which was left by the defenders of Stalingrad when leaving the city: “Here Rodimtsev’s guards stood to the death. By surviving, we defeated death.”

Alexander Rodimtsev is our first and only fellow countryman - twice Hero of the Soviet Union, who received the country's highest awards for military merits.

Participant in the Spanish Civil War, commander of the 13th Infantry Division, legend of Stalingrad and one of the first commanders to cross the Oder. Many books have been written about his life and exploits; films have been made based on his memoirs, the most famous of which was “No Unknown Soldiers” (1965).

March 8 marked the 105th anniversary of the birth of this legendary man, whose name is forever inscribed in military history. great Russia. Memories of Alexander Ilyich are collected in the museum of the school in the village of Sharlyk, in his small homeland, and in Lyceum No. 3 of Orenburg.

From shoemaker to soldier

The future military leader was born in poverty large family(he became her sixth child, - Red.). His father, Ilya Rodimtsev, did not have his own land, so he was hired as a farm laborer for wealthy farmers. Alexander managed to complete only four years of school, and after the death of his father in 1921, he was forced to apprentice to a shoemaker in order to feed his family.

A decisive turn in his fate occurred in 1927, when 22-year-old Alexander was drafted into the army. The unit commander noticed the smart guy and gave recommendations for further service and study at the Moscow Military School of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK).

By the way, the army was one of the most important “social elevators” in those years,” recalls Head of the General Rodimtsev Museum in the village of Sharlyk Larisa SKOMOROKHOVA. - A simple apprentice, who has never traveled further than the neighboring village, reveals his remarkable military talent in the army, first ends up in Saratov, and then becomes one of the Kremlin cadets!

"Kamrado Pavlito"

In the fall of 1936, Alexander Rodimtsev was transferred to Spain as a military specialist machine gunner to train combat crews. A year earlier, a fascist coup took place in this country - Hitler’s comrade-in-arms, General Franco, was striving for power. The USSR secretly helped the Spanish “comrades” to repel the advance of the “Francoists”.

From the museum records of the Colonel General: “One day I was called to headquarters, ordered to urgently change into civilian clothes and report to the station, to the Moscow-Paris train... They warned me: where I was going, why - not to say a word to anyone. Even my wife. They issued a passport with my photograph in the name of Pavlito Chitos, a businessman...”

Under this name, Alexander Ilyich was a military instructor in military units of the Republican Army until August 1937. An active participant in the defense of Madrid, the battles on the Jarama River, at Brueta, Teruel, near Guadalajara.

The Spaniards themselves considered the young officer “bewitched”: neither bullets nor shrapnel harmed him. There was even this legend: during one of the battles, “Captain Pavlito” was at the brigade command post. All of a sudden brigade commander Enrique LISTER saw that the tanks supporting the advance of his fighters suddenly changed direction and moved towards where the enemy’s hidden artillery battery stood, directly under cannon fire. How to warn tankers? There were no radios in tanks then.

Then Pavlito, without hesitation, rushed across the tank column under heavy fire. I caught up with the front car, jumped on the armor and started banging on the hatch and shouting - turn! So the tankers were warned and shot the battery from afar. And when Pavlito returned to the command post, there were more than a dozen holes from bullets and shrapnel on his overcoat. At the same time, there is not a scratch on him!

After returning from Spain, Senior Lieutenant Rodimtsev was immediately awarded the rank of major, and later the first Hero star. By the way, he became the 57th citizen of the USSR to receive this highest title.

Immortal City

After Spain, Alexander Ilyich studied at the Military Academy, and in May 1941 received the rank of colonel and a brigade of “unfired” recruits. A month later, she, together with her commander, took on the first blow of the army German field marshal von Rundstedt...

For almost a year our troops retreated under the pressure of the Nazis. In the summer of 1942, the most terrible battle in the history of mankind began - the battle for Stalingrad. By the beginning of September, the Nazis had already captured almost the entire city, and only a narrow strip of the coast in front of the Volga still remained in the hands of our troops. On September 9, Rodimtsev’s 13th Infantry Division received the order: cross the Volga, strike the enemy and occupy Mamayev Kurgan! The task was practically impossible - the Germans hit our people from the mound almost point-blank. Rodimtsev's guardsmen crossed on armored boats to the other side and immediately rushed to attack. The artillery was firing continuously, and the hit of a large-caliber shell on the boat smashed it, along with fifty paratroopers, into dust - there weren’t even any bodies left... But those who managed to get to land were already rushing to Mamayev Kurgan. It was a well-fortified height, bristling with machine-gun pillboxes and artillery caponiers. The attack was terrible - as the Orenburg hero himself later recalled, never before in that war had there been such desperate pressure, such incredible fortitude. Everyone understood: Stalingrad is the heart of the war, the turning point. Let's take Mamayev Kurgan - that means we'll take Berlin!

And Rodimtsev’s soldiers accomplished the impossible: on September 16, 1942, Mamaev Kurgan was taken! Marshal Georgy Zhukov he would later write in his memoirs: “The enemy, regardless of anything, broke through the ruins step by step closer to the Volga. The turning point in these difficult and, at times, it seemed like the last hours was created precisely by Rodimtsev’s 13th Guards Division...”

And in his small homeland, in the Orenburg region, in the Sharlyk district, people did not just closely follow the military exploits of their glorious fellow countryman and his guardsmen through newspapers and Sovinformburo reports! They were not only proud of the division commander - the valiant defender of Stalingrad, but also showed truly kindred concern for the soldiers of the 13th Guards Division. A patriotic movement developed in the area under the motto “Let’s dress and shoe Rodimtsev’s division!” More than 20,000 parcels from Sharly residents were sent to the front, to the fighting Stalingrad, from the regional center and villages. During the war years, more than 12 thousand of Rodimtsev's fellow countrymen - an entire division - went to the front. And from this division an entire regiment - 4197 Sharly residents - did not return home.

Later, Alexander Ilyich served in both Ukraine and Moscow. He visited his homeland, Sharlyk, several times. He died on April 13, 1977, and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow, but the memory of his outstanding fellow countryman is still alive. In Sharlyk and Orenburg there are squares and streets named in his honor. And in Volgograd, on the Mamayev Kurgan, the names of the guardsmen of the 13th Rodimtsev division are forever engraved. Guardsmen who broke the teeth of the German Wehrmacht.

Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev, Guard Lieutenant General, commander of the 32nd Guards Rifle Corps, was born in March 1905 in the village of Sharlyk, Sharlyk district, Orenburg region, into a peasant family. Russian. Member of the CPSU since 1929. After leaving school he worked as an apprentice shoemaker. He served in the Soviet Army from 1927 to 1977. After graduating from the military school named after the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in 1932, Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze in 1939 and a crash course at the Air Force Academy named after N.E. Zhukovsky in 1941, he was appointed commander of the 5th Airborne Brigade. In 1936 he took part in the fight against the fascists for the freedom and independence of Republican Spain, in September 1939 in operations to liberate Western Belarus, in 1940 in the Soviet-Finnish war.

From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War until the victory over Germany, he fought on the Southwestern, Stalingrad, Voronezh, and 1st Ukrainian fronts, participated in defensive operations near Kiev, Kharkov, in the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, the liberation of Ukraine, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the defeat of the enemy on the territory of Germany. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, four Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov 1st degree, the Red Star, medals, as well as orders and medals of foreign countries.

The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to A.I. Rodimtsev on October 22, 1937 for the valor and courage shown in battles with the Nazis for the freedom and independence of Republican Spain.

He was awarded the second Gold Star medal on June 2, 1945 for personal courage and skillful leadership of division and corps units during the Great Patriotic War.

Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev is one of the outstanding Soviet commanders. The units and formations he commanded wrote many glorious pages in the history of the Great Patriotic War. The remarkable victories of our troops are associated with his name.

The Great Patriotic War found Colonel Rodimtsev in Ukraine, where he commanded an airborne brigade. The paratroopers were sent to defend Kyiv. The battle-hardened paratrooper commander, with his personal bravery and courage, inspired the soldiers to defeat the enemy near Kyiv, on the Seim River and near Tim. The name of Rodimtsev is widely known among our people as the commander of the 13th Guards Division, which staunchly defended Stalingrad. The soldiers, who were bleeding but continued to fight, left an inscription on the wall: “Rodimtsev’s guardsmen stood here to the death.” And when the fighting ended, they added: “By surviving, we defeated death!”

Thanks to the personal courage, perseverance and skillful leadership of General Rodimtsev, parts of the division did not retreat a single step, and together with other formations they defended Stalingrad.

For the battles on the Volga, Rodimtsev was awarded the Order of the Red Star. He was appointed corps commander.

In the battles during the breakthrough of the German defenses, in the offensive operations to capture Znamenka and Kirovograd, General Rodimtsev’s corps, with its decisive, skillful actions, ensured the fulfillment of the assigned tasks of the 5th Guards Army. For the successful conduct of the operation, A. I. Rodimtsev was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.

Continuing to crush the enemy hordes, the guards formation of A.I. Rodimtsev went west and in mid-August 1944 crossed the Vistula in the Sandomierz area. On January 12, 1945, from the Sandomierz bridgehead, the corps, having broken through the heavily fortified defenses, continued the offensive to the Oder.

On the night of January 25, 1945, General Rodimtsev, being in the battle formations of the advanced units of the corps, crossed the Oder. In February, from the Oder bridgehead, the fighters went on the offensive, which ended on April 24, 1945 with access to the Elbe in the Torgau region, and on May 10 they entered Prague.

Introducing A.I. Rodimtsev to the title of twice Hero of the Soviet Union, the commander of the 5th Guards Army, Colonel-General A.S. Zhadov wrote: “General Rodimtsev, personally disciplined, brave, courageous, showed himself to be a faithful son during the entire Patriotic War of our Motherland, gave and is giving all his strength and his life to the defeat of the German invaders. For crossing the Oder River, exemplary execution of combat missions of the command and personal courage and heroism demonstrated at the same time, he is presented with the highest degree of distinction - the title of twice Hero of the Soviet Union with the presentation of the Gold Star medal.

A.I. Rodimtsev gave 50 years of his life to military service, having traveled a long and glorious path from a Red Army soldier to a colonel general.

IN last years A. I. Rodimtsev held high military positions, was elected as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the USSR. Died in 1977. The supertrawler of the Sevryba association, a street in Orenburg, is named after the Hero. A bronze bust of the Hero was installed in the village of Sharlyk.

On July 12, 1942, the Stalingrad Front included the 62nd, 63rd, 64th armies, and the 21st, 28th, 38th, 51st, 57th separate armies from the headquarters reserve. But already on August 7, the South-Eastern Front was separated from the Stalingrad Front (commander - Eremenko), to which the 64th, 57th, 51st Armies, the 1st Guards Army, and a little later the 62nd Army were transferred.

Hitler set the task of capturing Stalingrad in OKW Directive No. 45 of July 23. The Germans needed the advancement of the right wing of Army Group B, the core of which was the 6th Army, to the Stalingrad region and the occupation of the lower Volga region in order to interrupt the connection between the south of the European part of the USSR and the center of the country. Ensure successful offensive operations of Army Group “A” in the Caucasian direction.

Assault on a strong point

The Soviet command also attached paramount importance to the Stalingrad direction. It believed that only stubborn defense could thwart enemy plans, ensure the strategic integrity of the front, and retain the large military-industrial center - Stalingrad. The city was also an important strategic site, since the main waterway from the south to the center of the country ran through it.

The tasks of the Red Army were:

1. Exhaust the enemy's offensive potential with continuous defense

2. Prepare a counteroffensive in the Stalingrad area, which would dramatically change the situation in the south.

However, in July-August the situation became not just difficult, but critical. The 64th Army, positioned in a key area of ​​resistance to the German onslaught, was retreating. M.S. was appointed commander. Shumlov. IN AND. Chuikov is his deputy. Only on September 12th, when German troops had already broken into Stalingrad and began to approach the Volga, he took command of the 62nd Army, the formation of which was completed during fierce battles within the city.
At this time, the order of the People's Commissar No. 227 appeared:

Order No. 227

« ORDER
People's Commissar of Defense USSR № 227
July 28, 1942
Moscow

The enemy throws more and more forces to the front and, regardless of the great losses for him, climbs forward, rushes deep into the Soviet Union, captures new areas, devastates and ruins our cities and villages, rapes, robs and kills the Soviet population. Fighting is taking place in the Voronezh region, on the Don, in the south at the gates of the North Caucasus. The German occupiers are rushing towards Stalingrad, towards the Volga and want to capture Kuban and the North Caucasus with their oil and grain riches at any cost. The enemy has already captured Voroshilovgrad, Starobelsk, Rossosh, Kupyansk, Valuiki, Novocherkassk, Rostov-on-Don, and half of Voronezh. Part of the troops of the Southern Front, following the alarmists, left Rostov and Novocherkassk without serious resistance and without orders from Moscow, covering their banners with shame.

The population of our country, who treats the Red Army with love and respect, begins to become disillusioned with it, loses faith in the Red Army, and many of them curse the Red Army for putting our people under the yoke of the German oppressors, and itself flowing to the east.

Some stupid people at the front console themselves by saying that we can continue to retreat to the east, since we have a lot of territory, a lot of land, a lot of population and that we will always have plenty of grain. With this they want to justify their shameful behavior at the front. But such conversations are completely false and deceitful, beneficial only to our enemies.

Every commander, every Red Army soldier and political worker must understand that our funds are not unlimited. The territory of the Soviet Union is not a desert, but people - workers, peasants, intelligentsia, our fathers and mothers, wives, brothers, children. The territory of the USSR, which the enemy has captured and is trying to capture, is bread and other products for the army and home front, metal and fuel for industry, factories, plants supplying the army with weapons and ammunition, and railways. After the loss of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, Donbass and other regions, we have less territory, which means there are much fewer people, bread, metal, plants, factories. We lost more than 70 million people, more than 80 million pounds of grain per year and more than 10 million tons of metal per year. We no longer have a superiority over the Germans either in human resources or in grain reserves. To retreat further means to ruin ourselves and at the same time ruin our Motherland. Each new piece of territory we leave behind will strengthen the enemy in every possible way and weaken our defenses, our Motherland, in every possible way.

Therefore, we must completely stop the talk that we have the opportunity to retreat endlessly, that we have a lot of territory, our country is large and rich, there is a lot of population, there will always be plenty of grain. Such conversations are false and harmful, they weaken us and strengthen the enemy, because if we do not stop retreating, we will be left without bread, without fuel, without metal, without raw materials, without factories and factories, without railways.

It follows from this that it is time to end the retreat.

No step back! This should now be our main call.

We must stubbornly defend every position, every meter, to the last drop of blood. Soviet territory, cling to every piece of Soviet land and defend it to the last opportunity.

Our Motherland is going through difficult days. We must stop, and then push back and defeat the enemy, no matter the cost. The Germans are not as strong as the alarmists think. They're annoying last strength. To withstand their blow now means ensuring our victory.

Can we withstand the blow and then push the enemy back to the west? Yes, we can, because our factories and factories in the rear are now working perfectly and our front is receiving more and more planes, tanks, artillery, and mortars.

What do we lack?

There is a lack of order and discipline in companies, regiments, divisions, tank units, and air squadrons. This is now our main drawback. We must establish the strictest order and iron discipline in our army if we want to save the situation and defend our Motherland.

We cannot continue to tolerate commanders, commissars, and political workers whose units and formations leave combat positions without permission. We cannot tolerate it any longer when commanders, commissars, and political workers allow a few alarmists to determine the situation on the battlefield, so that they drag other fighters into retreat and open the front to the enemy.

Alarmists and cowards must be exterminated on the spot.

From now on, the iron law of discipline for every commander, Red Army soldier, and political worker must be the requirement - not a step back without an order from the high command.

Commanders of a company, battalion, regiment, division, corresponding commissars and political workers who retreat from a combat position without orders from above are traitors to the Motherland. Such commanders and political workers must be treated as traitors to the Motherland.

This is the call of our Motherland.

To carry out this order means to defend our land, save the Motherland, destroy and defeat the hated enemy.

After their winter retreat under the pressure of the Red Army, when discipline weakened in the German troops, the Germans took some harsh measures to restore discipline, which led to good results. They formed 100 penal companies from fighters guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, placed them in dangerous sectors of the front and ordered them to atone for their sins with blood. They formed, further, about a dozen penal battalions from commanders who were guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, deprived them of their orders, placed them in even more dangerous sectors of the front and ordered them to atone for their sins. They finally formed special barrage detachments, placed them behind unstable divisions and ordered them to shoot panickers on the spot if they attempted to leave their positions without permission or if they attempted to surrender. As you know, these measures had their effect, and now the German troops are fighting better than they fought in the winter. And so it turns out that the German troops have good discipline, although they do not have the lofty goal of defending their homeland, but have only one predatory goal - to conquer a foreign country, and our troops, who have the goal of defending their desecrated homeland, do not have such discipline and suffer because this defeat.

Shouldn't we learn from our enemies in this matter, just as our ancestors learned from their enemies in the past and then defeated them?

I think it should.

THE SUPREME HIGH COMMAND OF THE RED ARMY ORDERS:
1.To the military councils of the fronts and, above all, to the commanders of the fronts:

a) unconditionally eliminate retreating sentiments in the troops and suppress with an iron fist the propaganda that we can and should allegedly retreat further to the east, that such a retreat will supposedly cause no harm;

b) unconditionally remove from post and send to Headquarters to bring to court martial the army commanders who allowed the unauthorized withdrawal of troops from their positions, without an order from the front command;

c) form within the front from 1 to 3 (depending on the situation) penal battalions (800 people each), where to send middle and senior commanders and relevant political workers of all branches of the military who are guilty of violating discipline due to cowardice or instability, and place them on more difficult sections of the front to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood.

2. To the military councils of the armies and, above all, to the commanders of the armies:

a) unconditionally remove from their posts the commanders and commissars of corps and divisions who allowed the unauthorized withdrawal of troops from their positions without an order from the army command, and send them to the military council of the front to be brought before a military court;

b) form within the army 3-5 well-armed barrage detachments (200 people each), place them in the immediate rear of unstable divisions and oblige them in the event of panic and disorderly withdrawal of division units to shoot panickers and cowards on the spot and thereby help honest fighters divisions to fulfill their duty to the Motherland;

c) form within the army from 5 to 10 (depending on the situation) penal companies (from 150 to 200 people in each), where to send ordinary soldiers and junior commanders who have violated discipline due to cowardice or instability, and place them in difficult areas army to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against their homeland with blood.

3. Commanders and commissars of corps and divisions;

a) unconditionally remove from their posts the commanders and commissars of regiments and battalions that allowed the unauthorized withdrawal of units without an order from the corps or division commander, take away their orders and medals and send them to the military councils of the front to be brought before a military court:

b) provide all possible assistance and support to the army’s barrage detachments in strengthening order and discipline in the units.

The order should be read in all companies, squadrons, batteries, squadrons, teams, and headquarters.

People's Commissar of Defense
I. STALIN »

The strength of this order lay not only in the merciless truthfulness of the analysis of the strategic situation. The main thing is that he expressed the general mood, the collective will of the soldiers, commanders and political workers of the Red Army and the whole work: to retreat further means to die. Rodimtsev thought about the same thing. The bitterness from the realization that, despite the heroism and self-sacrifice of the people, had to retreat was unbearable.

“In any case, there is nowhere to retreat from here, from Mother Volga.”

These thoughts did not leave him when, driving through Stalingrad at night, he made a stop in the city center, where he happened to be for the first time. Together with the division commissar we climbed Mamayev Kurgan. This is how Alexander Ilyich describes these minutes of the night meeting: “Like the breath of the city, a measured roar floated and wavered, car headlights flashed like fireflies and immediately went out on the roads, somewhere nearby steam locomotives called to each other, and from the Volga, as if in response to them, bass whistles were heard ships.

I couldn’t believe that the front was already close, that it was moving like an inevitable avalanche of fire and metal, and that perhaps this wonderful peaceful city would become the focus and decisive pass of a war unprecedented in history. And who knew on that clear blue evening that our thirteenth guards would also have to fight for every block, house, floor and for every stone of this glorious Volga stronghold, stand unshakably on its completely blood-soaked ground, fight continuously for weeks and months here too, on Mamayev Kurgan, to lock up countless fascist warriors in captivity or death!

Mortar men fire

But we didn't know our fate. We stood and looked at the silent city and, I was sure of it, we were both thinking about one thing - about life and death. Anyone who fought for the Motherland and more than once looked danger in the eye knows how simple and clear this thought of a communist soldier is: to die for the sake of the Motherland means to live. And there is no limit to the desire to win. No personal. There is only Motherland, Party, Duty.”

While the guards were near Kamyshin, he demanded that commanders teach fighters not only general combat skills, but also tactics of action in street conditions.
At this time, a change occurred in the division's command chain. Rodimtsev’s classmate at the Academy, his permanent chief of staff since the pre-war days, Colonel V. Borisov, took the position of deputy division commander, and Major Tikhon Vladimirovich Belsky arrived in his place. Resigned for promotion from S.N.'s division. Zubkov. The post of commissioner was assumed by M.M. Vavilov. Rodimtsev greeted him at first somewhat warily: would he be able to become worthy of his predecessors - Chernyshev and Zubkov? But the wariness quickly melted away: Rodimtsev saw that Vavilov took up the matter energetically and skillfully, with soul. Moreover, he gained confidence in the new commissar when he learned that he, being the head of the division’s political department, fought near Moscow, participated in fierce battles near Volokolamsk and for those battles was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

On August 23, the city was subjected to a massive attack by enemy bombers. The German command sent 600 planes to Stalingrad, which continuously bombed the city all day. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to ruins. The city was burning, the Volga was burning, into which oil was flowing from broken storage facilities. 40,000 Stalingrad residents died that day. The city defense committee issued an appeal: “In 1918, our fathers defended the red Tsaritsyn... We will also defend the 1942 Red Banner Stalingrad!”

The battle began in Stalingrad itself.

The day after the bombing, advanced units reached the Volga north of Stalingrad strike force 6th Army of Paulus. And in the first week of September, the 4th Tank Army of the Nazis broke through to the southwestern outskirts of the city, displacing the troops of our 62nd Army, commanded by Chuikov.

On September 9, Rodimtsev received an order that the division was part of the 62nd Army and should concentrate on the right bank of the Volga at the crossings opposite the central part of Stalingrad. After 2 days, the main forces of the 13th Guards reached the concentration area. The division commander came with a report to the commander of the South-Eastern Front, Colonel General Eremenko.

Andrei Ivanovich, standing at the table on which the map lay, and leaning on a stick - he was wounded twice in the battles of the first year of the war - outlined the situation in Stalingrad, in the area defended by the 62nd Army. The situation was terrible. The enemy abandoned 7 infantry divisions, 500 tanks, and several hundred aircraft. 1,400 guns are firing at city blocks. The enemy breaks through into the central part of the city and captures the eastern slope of Mamayev Kurgan, the railway station, the buildings of the State Bank and the House of Specialists, from the upper floors of which the crossing over the Volga is visible and under fire. Enemy machine gunners infiltrated the area of ​​the central crossing of the Volga, and in order to drive them out, Chuikov was forced to send officers and guards from army headquarters.

“Get ready to cross,” Eremenko told Rodimtsev. — There is an order from Moscow.

The day before, Andrei Ivanovich called the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and reported on the situation in Stalingrad. At this time, the Chief of the General Staff Vasilievsky and the First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Zhukov were in Stalin's office, who reported to the Supreme Commander the plan for encircling and defeating the Nazis at Stalingrad.

After finishing the telephone conversation, Stalin said:

— Eremenko reports that the enemy is bringing tank units to the city. Tomorrow we must wait for a new blow. Give immediate instructions for the immediate transfer of Rodimtsev's 13th Guards Division from the Headquarters reserve across the Volga. And see what else you can send there tomorrow.

As soon as they set foot on the right bank of the Volga, Rodimtsev’s guards fiercely attacked the enemy

Returning from the front commander, Rodimtsev, together with the chief of staff T.V. Belsky began to develop the procedure for crossing the division to the right bank of the Volga. The first to cross and enter the battle was one of the best battalions, which had to not only attack the enemy on the move, but also provide cover for the crossing units of the entire division.

- Whom will we send? — the division commander asked the commander of the 42nd Guards rifle regiment I.P. Elina.

- Whom? — he asked thoughtfully. - Yes, all my battalion commanders are good guys. But the first is the first. Chervyakov will go.

Rodimtsev knew Guard Senior Lieutenant Zakhar Chervyakov well - he bravely and skillfully commanded a unit at the Seimas, near Tim and Kharkov, and distinguished himself when crossing the Don.

- I don’t mind. Warn him, let him prepare his eagles.

About the events of the night from September 14 to 15, when the division began crossing the coast, Alexander Ilyich recalled:

The deputy front commander, Lieutenant General F.I. Golikov, drove up to us. He was tasked with transporting the division to Stalingrad.
And here we are standing with him on the banks of the Volga, at the very edge of the water, where a wave is splashing, raised by the propellers of boats, exploding mines and shells.

“Give me one more day to prepare,” I ask Philip Ivanovich.

He answers:

- I can’t, Rodimtsev!

Golikov peers at the opposite bank and, apparently, from the flashes of new fires, the roar of explosions and the direction of the rifle and machine-gun routes, imagines what is going on there.

“Not everyone is armed with me yet, I don’t have enough ammunition and I don’t even have intelligence data,” I try to convince the deputy commander.
But he calmly asks in response:

- Do you see that shore, Rodimtsev?

- I see. It seems to me that the enemy has approached the river.

- It doesn’t seem like it, but it is so. So make a decision - both for yourself and for me.

Golikov was right. Not only in a day, but even in two hours it could be too late, but we would still have to cross, even through fire.

“Don’t hesitate, start crossing, Rodimtsev,” Golikov hurries me, without taking his eyes off the fiery boiling river.

Looking at the streams of tracks spreading along the slopes of the right bank to the river, at the splash of water from falling shells and mines, I say to Golikov:

- This is not just a crossing, Philip Ivanovich. This is a real crossing of a wide water barrier under the influence of the enemy, and without air and artillery cover.

This, of course, didn’t make it any easier for me, but we had to call things by their proper names.

“Don’t be angry, Alexander Ilyich,” a guilty note could be heard in Golikov’s voice, “it’s a habit!” All the time we talked about crossing and crossing, but now you’re right - a crossing, and in difficult conditions. We send people into fire and water... Look, you see, the scoundrel got it right after all!

The barge, which stood a hundred steps downstream from us, was hit by an enemy mine. Screams were heard, something heavy splashed into the water, and the stern burst into flames like a huge torch. It probably hit the fuel barrels.

- How will I ensure the crossing? - Golikov says bitterly. — They brought in all sorts of artillery, up to the main caliber. But who should we shoot? Where is the German? Where is the cutting edge? In the city there is one bloodless division of Colonel Saraev (10th NKVD division) and thinned out detachments people's militia. That's the entire sixty-second army. There are only pockets of resistance there. There are joints, and what the hell are there joints - holes between units of several hundred meters. And Chuikov has nothing to patch them up with.

I was silent. The situation has only now begun to become clearer for me.

-Who is the commander of the forward detachment? - asked Golikov.

- Chervyakov.

- Tell him to mark the leading edge with missiles as soon as he crosses. Then let's fire. Now immediately find the commander of the second division of armored boats here on the shore... Do you have anything to write down?

“Yes,” I answered, taking out a notebook from my field bag.

- Write it down so you don’t forget: Senior Lieutenant Sorkin has been assigned to transfer your division to the other side. Tell him that the crossing starts at two o'clock. I will now tell Chuikov about this. Now - act!

At 2 o'clock in the morning on September 15, the Zakharov-Chervyakov battalion, reinforced by a company of machine gunners, a company of tank destroyers and a battery of "forty-fives", loaded onto armored boats and went to the right bank. They had barely set sail when enemy artillery opened intense fire on the boats. When they found themselves in the middle of the river, rifle and machine-gun fire extended towards them. They landed, pouring machine gun fire on the coastal strip, and dragged guns to the shore in chest-deep water.

Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov, in 1942, First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR:

The enemy, regardless of anything, broke through the ruins step by step closer to the Volga. The turning point in these difficult and, at times, it seemed like the last hours was created by Rodimtsev’s 13th Guards Division. Having crossed to Stalingrad, she immediately counterattacked the enemy. On September 16, the division recaptured Mamayev Kurgan.

Having left the boats, they attacked the enemy on the move. A liaison officer who arrived from the headquarters of the 62nd Army conveyed Chuikov’s order: to immediately advance in the direction of the railway station and drive the enemy out of there. The army commander sent reinforcements: 3 tanks. The station was taken by a swift, furious assault. In this battle, the battalion commander was seriously wounded. The unit was headed by his deputy, senior lieutenant F. Fedoseev.

By that time, the remaining battalions of Elin’s 42nd Regiment and the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment of Major Panikhin had crossed to the right bank of the Volga. It was a difficult crossing. The water in the Volga was boiling from continuous explosions, and oil was burning on its surface. A barge with a company of machine gunners was destroyed by a direct hit from a shell, and other units suffered losses. Once on the right bank, the guards immediately began to move forward. Developing the success of the first battalion of Chervyakov-Fedoseev, units of the 42nd regiment struck along Solnechnaya and Nizhegorodskaya streets and took to the canvas railway, passing along the river bank, took possession of a number of buildings in the central part of the city. Panikhin’s regiment also operated successfully, capturing the ruins of buildings on Grodno and Smolenskaya streets.

One of the important strongholds held by the Nazis by that time was the Railway Worker's House - a large four-story building on a hill. From here the enemy held the entire surrounding territory under fire and shelled the crossing of the Volga. Among the units of the 42nd Regiment, which were tasked with driving the Germans out of the building, was a company of mortar men under the command of Senior Lieutenant Grigory Brik, a former rural teacher from Cherkassy. After a fierce battle, the Railwayman's House was taken, but the Nazis immediately made an attempt to return the building. However, it was unsuccessful, largely thanks to Brick's mortars, who during these hours destroyed up to a company of Germans. This is how the Stalingrad baptism of the courageous artillery officer took place, who was destined to go through the entire war with his regiment, and for the feat accomplished in the battles on the Oder River in 1945, to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

At dawn, Rodimtsev, Vavilov, and Belsky crossed to Stalingrad along with the division headquarters. We barely arrived at the command post - in the adit located under the railway. The canvas, which later became known as the “Pipe,” as a messenger conveyed Chuikov’s order: Rodimtseu should urgently report to the army command post. Taking with him adjutant Shevchenko, intelligence officer Voitsekhovsky and one machine gunner, Rodimtsev went to the command room. It was a stone's throw to the bed of the Tsarina, a river flowing perpendicularly into the Volga, but this division commander and his companions had to make the journey under bombing, machine gun and mortar fire. While they were getting there, the army headquarters liaison officer accompanying them was killed, a machine gunner was wounded, and a scout was seriously shell-shocked. They were left in the bomb crater to wait for the paramedics.

The division commander and his adjutant entered a long dugout-tunnel, divided into sections, which in the 62nd Army had already been dubbed the “Tsaritsyn dungeon.” Rodimtsev reported to the army commander about his arrival.

- Well, Comrade Rodimtsev, how did you feel the situation in Stalingrad? - Chuikov asked Alexander Ilyich wearily as he entered.

- Quite.

This is how they first met - two people whose names later became legends of the Battle of Stalingrad. But even before meeting in person, they were aware of each other.

Rodimtsev had also heard a lot about Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov. He knew that the current army commander, as a 19-year-old youth, commanded a regiment during the Civil War, was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner for battles against Kolchak and the Belopoles, commanded the army during the Soviet-Finnish War, was a military adviser in China, and from the first days of the Great Patriotic War was in responsible sectors of the front.

Chuikov briefly described and showed on the map the position of the troops of the 62nd Army, outlined the zone of action of the 13th Guards Division - from the Tsarina River in the south to the railway loop and Mamayev Kurgan inclusive in the north.

— Mamaev Kurgan still needs to be taken.

- I have no doubt that you will take it. - Chuikov answered dryly.

But first, the two Rodimtsev regiments that had crossed at that time had to repel the fierce onslaught of the enemy in the area of ​​the station. The Germans, hesitating to attack at night, launched an offensive with up to two infantry divisions supported by tanks on the morning of September 15.

Fierce battles, sometimes turning into hand-to-hand combat, flared up along the railroad bed. In one day, the building changed hands 4 times, but by nightfall it remained in the hands of Soviet soldiers. The battalion that held him, Senior Lieutenant Fedoseev, chained him to a regiment of fascist infantry.

And on the night of September 16, the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment of Guard Major S.S. crossed the Volga. Dolgova. By order of the division commander, without a single minute of respite, the guardsmen of the battalion under the command of I. Isakov stormed the Mamaev Kurgan, indicated on military maps as height 102.0.

Capture of Mamayev Kurgan

During the few days that Mamayev Kurgan was in the hands of the Nazis, the enemy thoroughly fortified itself in it: they equipped an extensive system of firing points and trenches. From here they fired targeted artillery and machine-gun fire far around, greatly complicating the combat operations of the units of Rodimtsev’s division, the entire 62nd Army, and the work of crossing the Volga. At the top of the mound, the Germans equipped a powerful bunker, which kept the approaches to the heights under fire. To successfully storm the mound, this bunker had to be destroyed at all costs. Junior Lieutenant Timofeev volunteered to do this.

Yakov Pavlov

The brave officer and four volunteer soldiers, crawling and running, using hillocks, craters and ditches, managed to get close to the enemy firing point and throw grenades at it. After this, the main forces of the 39th regiment went on the attack. The Nazis' fire was very dense, in some places it pinned the attackers to the ground. At a critical moment, company commander Ivan Chuprina raised his soldiers into hand-to-hand combat, and other units followed. The guardsmen burst into the enemy trenches. The battle continued throughout the day, with both sides suffering huge losses. Guard Lieutenant Chuprina also fell the death of a hero. But in the evening, regiment commander Dolgov informed Rodimtsev that height 102.0 had been taken. Now the station, 9 January Square and Mamayev Kurgan - all points that controlled access to the Volga in the sector of Rodimtsev's division - were in the hands of the guards. However, holding on to the conquered positions turned out to be no easier, and perhaps even more difficult, than to recapture them from the Germans.

The Nazis stormed these positions enormous forces. Hundreds of planes bombed the defenders of Stalingrad, tanks, mortars and heavy artillery were used. In one day, September 17, the enemy attacked Dolgov’s lines on Mamayev Kurgan 6 times with up to two infantry regiments supported by 20 tanks. But soviet soldiers didn't move a single step. Meanwhile, the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment noticeably expanded the territory occupied by the 13th Division: its units drove the Germans out of their houses, or rather, from the ruins - along Republican, Komsomolskaya and Proletarskaya streets. This meant that Rodimtsev's guards were firmly entrenched on the right bank of the Volga, in the central part of Stalingrad.

In the battles on Orenburgskaya Street, the crew of the “forty-five”, where Leonid Lyubavin was the gunner, showed themselves valiantly. When the Germans launched their tanks, the crew knocked out the lead vehicle with the first shot. It interfered with the advance of the remaining tanks, which began to go around it on either side, exposing its sides to fire. The crew knocked out 2 more tanks, but all the artillerymen, except Lyubavin, were out of action. Lyubavin himself had his legs broken by shrapnel. However, overcoming the pain, he managed to hit the approaching fourth tank at point-blank range with the last shot. Bleeding Lyubavin was carried out of the battle by his comrades, sent to the left bank of the Volga, and his feat was reported to the commander.

Rodimtsev and division commissar Vavilov presented him with the Order of the Red Banner. A leaflet was issued about his feat.

For 10 days and nights, soldiers of the first battalion of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment under the command of F. Fedoseev defended the station building. They continued to hold out even when the Nazis managed to surround the building with a tight ring, cutting it off from the main forces of the division. Attempts to break through to the besieged battalion failed. How the heroic guardsmen fought is evidenced by a document discovered by Rodimtsev’s soldiers in the building among the bodies of the fallen defenders of the station, when some time after the death of the Fedoseev battalion the building was again recaptured from the Germans.

Report.

11.30, 20.9.42 years

Guard senior lieutenant Fedoseev.

I report that the situation is as follows:

The enemy is trying with all his might to surround my company, to send machine gunners to the rear of my company, but all his attempts will not be crowned with success. Despite the superior enemy forces, our soldiers and commanders show courage and heroism... Until they pass through my corpse, the Krauts will not succeed.
The guards are not retreating. Let the soldiers and commanders die the death of brave men, but the enemy must not cross our defenses. Let the whole country know the thirteenth guards division and the third rifle company...

The commander of the third company is in a tense situation and is personally physically unwell. He is deafened and weak in hearing. You feel dizzy and fall off your feet, bleeding from the nose. Despite all the difficulties, the guards and personally the third and second companies will not retreat back... Let the Soviet land be the grave of the Germans!

The commander of the third company, Koleganov, personally killed the first and second Fritz machine gunners and took the machine gun and documents, which were presented to the battalion headquarters.
I rely on my soldiers and commanders. The guardsmen will not spare their lives for the complete victory of Soviet power...

The commander of the third rifle company is guard junior lieutenant Koleganov.

The commander of the second company is Guard Lieutenant Kravtsov.”

Marshal of the Soviet Union I.Kh. Baghramyan:

Rodimtsev entered the Great Patriotic War as a mature commander. From the first day of the war until victory, he was in the Active Army, commanding a brigade, division, and corps. A special page in his combat biography is his participation in the defense of Stalingrad. In the most difficult and intense days of fighting, Rodimtsev showed the ability to firmly lead troops, will and determination, personal courage and bravery.

On September 21, the enemy again launched a frantic assault on the lines occupied by Rodimtsev’s guards. They launched an offensive in the direction of Mamayev Kurgan and part of the city beyond the Tsaritsa River. Having broken through at the junction of the 13th Guards Division and the 92nd Rifle Brigade, the enemy reached the Volga.

Alexander Ilyich turned the left flank of the division to the south, from where the enemy launched an attack. The division commander threw all his modest reserves into the threatening area, but was unable to restore the situation that day: he did not have enough strength. Fierce fighting lasted until late in the evening, sometimes turning into hand-to-hand combat. And on the 22nd, trying to consolidate the emerging success, the Nazis launched 12 attacks by infantry and tanks. At some point, a group of enemy machine gunners managed to bypass the right flank of Panikhin’s regiment, and another group broke through to the 9 January Square and began to cover the left edge of the regiment. Rodimtsev rushed to the aid of the soldiers of the 34th guards regiment battalion from Dolgov's regiment, as well as everything that could be collected: scouts, the commandant's platoon. This counterattack was carried out, albeit with very small forces, but so quickly that it stunned the enemy. The Germans were driven back from the January 9 Square and from the adjacent bank of the Volga. The siege of the command post of the 34th regiment, which lasted 2 hours, was liquidated.

N.I. Krylov, Chief of Staff of the 62nd Army:

I would like to emphasize: the commander of the 13th Guards Division was able to liquidate the most dangerous breakthrough on his right flank and restore basically the previous positions there in conditions when heavy fighting continued in other sectors and it was necessary to prevent possible new penetrations. And all this - in a narrow strip of Volga city blocks, where any maneuver is extremely difficult. Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev, who experienced a lot during the war, later said that the battle on September 22, 1942 remained the most intense for him.

Having defended their occupied lines, the division's soldiers that day destroyed over 1,000 enemy soldiers and officers and 30 enemy tanks.
And then correspondence appeared in Krasnaya Zvezda about the military affairs of the 13th Guards Division.

...Every day the guards take on 12-15 attacks from enemy tanks and infantry, supported by aviation and artillery,” the newspaper wrote, “and they always repel the enemy’s onslaught to the last opportunity, covering the ground with new dozens and hundreds of fascist corpses. Not only with their minds, but with all their hearts, with all their beings, the guardsmen realize that it is impossible to retreat further, there is nowhere to retreat further... Full of an unshakable determination to lay down their heads rather than take even a step back, they, like a cliff, stand in their positions, and, as against the cliff, numerous waves of enemy attacks are crushed against their position.
The guards stubbornly and courageously defend every house, every street, choosing opportune moments, launching counterattacks, devastating the ranks of the enemy. In just one day they killed two thousand Nazis, destroyed 18 tanks and 30 vehicles. On another day, the guards set fire to 42 enemy tanks. Iron tenacity in defense, swift onslaught in counterattacks - distinguishing feature guardsmen of the division commanded by Major General Rodimtsev.

Already in these first difficult months of the Battle of Stalingrad, the glory of the defenders of the city on the Volga resounded not only in our country, but also far beyond its borders. The British newspaper The Irish Times reported:
« We are told that the times of miracles are over. But from a military point of view, the defense of the Russian army at Stalingrad belongs to the realm of miracles. According to all military canons, the city should have been captured by the Germans long ago, but just as happened with Madrid during the Spanish Civil War and with Leningrad twelve months ago, military experts were baffled, and the human element turned out to be incalculable y".

It is unlikely that the British journalists were aware that the same person was involved in the creation of both the Madrid and Stalingrad miracles they mentioned - a native of the rural outback, Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev.

And in his small homeland, in the Orenburg region, in the Sharlyk district, people not only closely followed the fighting of their glorious fellow countryman and his guardsmen in newspapers and Sovinformburo reports, they were not just proud of the division commander - the valiant defender of Stalingrad, but also expressed their concern for the soldiers of the 13th The guards truly have a kindred concern. A patriotic movement developed in the area under the motto “Let’s dress and shoe Rodimtsev’s division!” More than 20,000 parcels from Sharly residents were sent to the front, to the fighting Stalingrad, from the regional center and villages. As Rodimtsev himself recalled:

« During the war and in the far rear, life was difficult, but we received lard, butter, honey, as well as warm clothes - short fur coats, felt boots... At the front line, the guards read letters that ended with the words dear to us: “We will not regret anything for the front and for you , Stalingraders!»

During the war years, more than 12 thousand of Rodimtsev's fellow countrymen - an entire division - went to the front. And from this division an entire regiment - 4197 Sharly residents - did not return home. Almost 4,700 natives of the district were awarded military decorations, and 11 - more than from any other district of the Orenburg region - became Heroes of the Soviet Union, and among them, two-time Hero General Rodimtsev and Tatar poet, Lenin Prize laureate Musa Jalil, well-known in the country and abroad .

To help the front in the region, there was an active collection of funds for the Defense Fund. In just a short time, residents of the area collected more than three million rubles. All the workers of the Orenburg region worked selflessly for victory and for the needs of the front. During the war years, they increased their gross industrial output almost 4 times, and oil and gas production increased 9 times. During the war years, collective and state farms in the region gave the state 124 million pounds of bread, 7.5 million pounds of meat, and many other agricultural products. Orenburg residents contributed 123 million rubles to the Defense Fund; with their personal savings, 3 military boats were built for the Baltic Fleet - “Chkalovsky Komsomolets”, “Chkalovets”, “Chkalovsky Pioneer”. And the chairman of the collective farm “Drummer of the Second Five-Year Plan” of the Orenburg region, Sergei Kuzhman, purchased a Yak-6 fighter with his own money, and at his request the plane was sent to Rodimtsev’s division.

In the battle of Stalingrad, the guards not only beat the enemy, but also donated their personal savings to the Defense Fund. Addressed Supreme Commander-in-Chief A telegram was sent from the 13th Guards: “The personnel of the guardsmen of our unit contributed 1,200,000 rubles to the fund of the tank column named after the 62nd Army, the collection continues. With exceptional enthusiasm, fighters and commanders are giving their savings to the fight against fascist scum. Signatures: Rodimtsev, Vavilov.”
After the first weeks of fighting, which were characterized by great mobility, frequent attacks and counterattacks on both sides, when streets and individual buildings changed hands for a short time, from the beginning of October the defenders of Stalingrad began to pay special attention to the comprehensive strengthening of the occupied lines, the construction of a strong and good defense. At this time, Chuikov’s order came: to firmly hold the occupied part of the city, not to move a step from our positions, to turn every trench into a strong point, every house into a fortress. Work to strengthen positions went on in all units of the 13th Guards, soldiers dug trenches and communication passages, mined approaches to their lines, installed wire barriers, and equipped the ruins of buildings for machine-gun points. Under continuous enemy fire, coupled with constant brutal fighting, it was hard and dangerous work. However, the guardsmen understood well: it is precisely this that allows them to withstand the onslaught of Nazi troops.

But at the same time, the Germans were also strengthening the captured lines. They turned the buildings of school No. 38, the House of Specialists, the military trade store, the state bank, and also an L-shaped house into strongholds. These strongholds greatly constrained the actions of the guards, from where the enemy held the central crossing and the rear of the division on the left bank of the Volga under fire. The guards carefully prepared the assault on these buildings. Assault groups were created and put together, scouts carefully studied the approaches to houses and the enemy defense system.

Among the first enemy strongholds, Rodimtsev ordered the capture of the state bank building. More than two hundred meters long, with thick stone walls, with deep basements that were inaccessible to either a shell or a bomb, this building was literally like a bone in the throat for the guardsmen. The whole question was how to get this bone out.

Deputy division commander Borisov gathered everyone who was appointed to participate in the capture of the building and drew them a diagram of it - with all the floors, entrances, stairwells and windows. Indicated the location of firing points and other information.

Marshal of the Soviet Union Chuikov:

During the fighting in the defense of Stalingrad, the division carried out assault combat missions well. Comrade In the battles for Stalingrad, Rodimev successfully used his experience in street fighting, inflicting severe blows on the enemy. The division under his command fought firmly.
Comrade Rodimtsev stood out from the division commanders not only for his strong-willed qualities, but also as an exceptionally competent commander in tactical terms.

“Fortress,” he thoughtfully summed up his story.

They decided to first blow up the wall with a powerful charge, and then the assault and cover groups would quickly penetrate the gap through the gap until the stunned Germans came to their senses. The division commander approved this plan.

One October evening, when it got dark, the first to move to the state bank building were sappers and demolitions. They moved secretly, crawling, carefully camouflaging themselves. It was not so easy: everyone carried 30 kg with them. Explosives. After some time, the covering and assault groups came out. The guardsmen fired intensely at the building from their positions.

Rodimtsev, Vavilov, Borisov and Dolgov, observing the operation, peered intently into the autumn darkness. So he said in a muffled voice, “It’s time!”
And almost immediately there was a powerful explosion. And after him - the popping of grenades, shouts in German. And all this was covered with a united, menacing “Hurray!” — the storming guardsmen went forward. Soon, commanders watching the development of events with the OP saw colored rockets soaring above the building. This meant - stop supporting fire, we are inside, in direct combat with the enemy.

Rodimtsev had a fairly clear idea of ​​what was happening in the bank building at that moment. Not very often, but in his military life there were night assault battles. The first is in Madrid, on a university campus. In such cases there is no leading edge, no front, no rear - the enemy can be everywhere. Such a battle is a combination of hand-to-hand combat and dagger fire, where flair, resourcefulness, courage and audacity decide everything.

A.S. Dolgov, former commander of the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment:

I know Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev especially well from the Battle of Stalingrad. As the commander of the 39th Guards Regiment, I often had to communicate with him in combat situations, which he always knew thoroughly, and often personally appeared in the most dangerous sectors of the front. He was brave, decisive, demanding of himself and his subordinates, providing effective assistance at the right time.
Rodimtsev was a wonderful person and a wonderful military leader, he was loved and respected by his subordinates.

As a result of a fleeting and daring attack, the guards completely cleared the State Bank building of the Germans, secured a secure foothold in it, and repulsed all enemy attempts to regain this important defensive point. Rodimev reported the success to Chuikov by telephone.

There was a restrained response.

The next object identified was an L-shaped house. Panikhin’s regiment was entrusted with preparing the assault, and the deputy regiment commander Kotsarenko was directly involved in the development of the operation. The plan he proposed was simple and feasible, but it required a lot of work.

The approaches to the house were shot up and down by the Germans, they were thickly stuffed with mines, and strewn with barriers made of brick, iron, and barbed wire. To overcome this space with an attacking throw was a suicidal idea. The solution was found as follows: to dig a full-profile trench in the direction of the building under its very walls, almost 100 meters long.

At first they worked at night, but when the Germans discovered this guards “sapa”, they began to dig during the day. The trench provided good protection from automatic and machine-gun fire, but the enemy could not attack the guardsmen with an attack: their own mines and rubble got in the way.

The soldiers carried the dug up soil in bags at night and dumped it under the Volga slope. At the same time, the regiment was preparing assault groups. They included sappers, machine gunners, machine gunners, armor-piercing soldiers with anti-tank rifles, as well as 2 soldiers armed with flamethrowers.

Finally the trench was ready. Along it, the assault group approached almost close to the building and took its starting position. At the signal from the green rocket, the flamethrowers fired jets of flame along the walls of the house. The flaming mixture illuminated the building well for the attackers. They struck with machine guns, machine guns, anti-tank rifles, and guns, not allowing the Germans to stick their heads out and snarl. The peculiarity of the assault was that there was no surprise here, the Germans saw perfectly well and knew everything that was happening; but the guards thought through everything so well and acted so methodically that the enemy could not stop them.

In the wire fences surrounding the house, the sappers quickly made passages, and the assault group rushed to attack. The sappers broke into the house through windows and holes in the walls. The soldiers who remained in their original positions did not stop conducting covering fire from small arms, but carefully concentrated it on the upper floors, preventing the enemy from firing at the attackers. And having burst inside the building, Soviet soldiers began to clear the premises room by room, floor by floor.

In just half an hour, all six floors of the L-shaped house were in the hands of the guards. A group of enemy soldiers holed up in the basement was eliminated by blowing up the ceiling with sabers. The capture of this building brought the guards a significant tactical gain; it allowed the 34th Guards Regiment D.I. Panikhina to straighten its leading edge, reducing it almost in half. The enemy's ability to conduct targeted fire at the Volga crossing was sharply reduced.
The advance of Soviet or German troops by a hundred meters in Stalingrad was taken into account in strategic plans command, was important for the situation on the huge Soviet-German front, sometimes influenced the outcome of the operation, all wars. The whole world watched with bated breath the street battles in the city on the Volga.

One night in September 1942, Rodimtsev arrived at the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment. Together with the unit commanders I.P. Elin headed to an observation post set up in a dilapidated area. The 9 January Square stretched ahead. And in the middle of it, 200 meters from the NP, a 4-story brick building stood black. Here's how it happens: Rodimtsev, who scrupulously kept records of every square meter of urban space conquered and held by the division's guards, for some reason it still hasn't occurred to him to take an interest in this building that survived the bombing. At the same time, the house stood like a traffic controller at an intersection. Whoever owns it is the owner of the square and its surroundings.

- What kind of house is this, Ivan Pavlovich? And whose?

- Well, it looks like it’s no one’s. - Yelin grinned. “If we try to get close to him, the Nazis shoot with all their guns.” They come in - we don’t let them in. It’s still standing in no man’s land.

- Here you go! Such a wonderful position - and ownerless. We need to correct this omission.

Rodimtsev ordered Elin to send a reconnaissance group to the building.

The regiment commander entrusted this task to Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, a twenty-five-year-old native Novgorod region, who fought in the division from the first days of the Great Patriotic War. Elin left it to Pavlov himself to select a group for the sortie. He named the fighters from his platoon: Corporal Glushchenko, no longer young, who had gone through the First World War and the Civil War, and two savvy and agile privates, his peers Aleksandrov and Chernogolov.

The company commander Naumov knew all four of them well and had strong confidence in every battle. Seeing off the group, he said to the sergeant:

- Act according to the situation, Sergeant. If you manage to not just scout, but “register” in this building, you will give a sign, two red flares.

We filled the machine gun discs with cartridges, took more grenades, stocked up on tobacco and set off. The path from the guards’ positions to the “no man’s” house, although not far, was very dangerous: at the first suspicious movement in the square, the Nazis opened fire. However, the scouts managed to avoid giving themselves away and approached the building without any special incidents.

In the light of the moon, the house stood like a silent black mass, showing no signs of life. The scouts carefully entered inside and began to examine room by room. Empty. But in one of the apartments of the 2nd entrance they found a German machine gun crew. They did not expect the visit, and the scouts quietly dealt with them. They seized a light machine gun and ammunition.

No one else was found on the floors. But there were several inhabitants in the basements. These were the residents of the house - old people, women, one even with a baby, as well as a group of wounded soldiers under the supervision of medical instructor Kalinin.

The scouts took a smoke break and began to hold advice: what to do next?

We must take up defensive positions in the house,” Corporal Glushchenko expressed his opinion. - The position for the division is very advantageous; here you can equip a real fortress. This time. The civilian population here with children cannot be left unattended. That's two.

His comrades agreed with him. They decided to send medical instructor Kalinin to his people: let him report that the scouts decided to settle in the house, but they needed help. As was agreed upon when leaving for the mission, Pavlov gave a signal with two red flares, but in the fireworks of the intense firefight, the observers missed them, and Kalinin did not immediately manage to cross the square. Therefore, both the regiment commander and the division commander were worried about the fate of Yakov Pavlov and his comrades.

Russian soldiers come to the aid of the garrison of Pavlov's house.

At dawn, the Germans, who were informed about the Soviet soldiers by 2 machine gunners who had escaped from the house, tried to regain their position. At first, infantry attacked several times, but the attack was repulsed using a captured machine gun. Then the house began to be shelled with guns and mortars. Neither the scouts nor the residents of the house who were in the basement were injured. These actions attracted the attention of observers from the 42nd Regiment. Elin told Rodimtsev.

At first, Rodimtsev did not believe that four soldiers were able to capture a hefty house, and even kill several dozen enemy soldiers on the approaches to it. However, Kalnin soon reached our positions and reported on the situation.

Elin ordered to immediately assemble a group and send it to strengthen the garrison located in the building on the square. The house has already begun to be called “Pavlov’s house.” A small group of soldiers led by Lieutenant Ivan Afanasyev - 24 people in total - went to Pavlov's house. It included Georgians, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Abkhazs, Kazakhs, Tatars and Ukrainians.

- A real international brigade! - Rodimtsev exclaimed.

It was the second night of the foursome's stay, led by Pavlov, in the building on the square. Yakov was worried: would help really not come? But then there was a cautious knock on the door, and then the familiar voice of Lieutenant Afanasyev:

- Ours. Open it up.

The entrance was quickly unbarricaded. The arrivals entered heavily loaded with ammunition and boxes of food. When, among the delivered supplies, Yakov Pavlov saw a huge tank, exuding the aroma of borscht, a pot and a flask, he finally felt it himself, believed it to the end: yes, now the Germans will never see this house.

The garrison, without hesitation, began to arrange for further defense. We equipped firing points for anti-tank rifles, prepared positions for company mortars - these were also delivered by those who arrived. Afanasyev and Pavlov distributed groups of machine gunners and machine gunners throughout the premises of the building. Now Pavlov's house was ready to repel enemy attacks. The defense capability of the small garrison increased further when, on Rodimtsev’s orders, sappers dug a communication route from the forward positions of Elin’s regiment to the building on the square, installed mines and wire barriers, and equipped 4 external firing points near the house.

- Now let the Fritz try to smoke us out! We will die, but we will not leave.

“No, it’s not like that,” Pavlov corrected the fighters. “We won’t “die,” but we’ll kill the Germans if they show up.” And we will certainly leave here, but only forward, from Stalingrad - to Berlin! Clear?

For 58 days and nights, a handful of brave men - less than a platoon in number - defended Pavlov's house and repelled hundreds of enemy attacks. The minimum distance at which the enemy was able to approach the house during this time was only 14 steps. It happened one afternoon when several German tanks. The guards shot down one vehicle with an anti-tank rifle, and the second was blown up by a mine. But the third continued to move forward, and, as luck would have it, in such a sector that there was nothing to reach it with. Then the fighter Efremov ran out of the entrance and crawled towards the tank with a bunch of grenades in his hand. Seizing the moment, he threw a bunch of the tank under the tracks. There was a powerful explosion, the gray mass twitched, froze, smoked thickly, and then there was a roar again - the ammunition exploded. But Efremov did not move. Murzaev rushed to his aid; he himself was wounded twice, but managed to drag his comrade inside the building. But Efremov was no longer breathing.

The dead and seriously wounded were replaced by new fighters. At the first opportunity, the battalion commander, commander of the 42nd regiment Elin, visited the garrison. Alexander Rodimtsev has also been here more than once.

During one of his visits to Pavlov’s house, soldier Egorov introduced himself to the division commander: “Machine gunner.” Rodimtsev asked what number the guardsman was in the Maxim team.

“And I, Comrade General, as the Lord God, am one in three persons.” In all guises at once: as a commander, as a gunner, and as a carrier of cartridges.
Rodimtsev, remembering his youth as a machine-gun cadet, always favored representatives of this soldier’s specialty. While visiting Pavlov’s house, he noticed machine gunner Ilya Voronov and had heart-to-heart conversations with him more than once. And Guard Sergeant Voronov justified such trust and the attention of the division commander.

Before the next enemy attack, he, together with fighters Ivashchenko and Svirin, took his “Maxim” out of the building, placed it in front of the house in the ruins of the extension, and camouflaged it well. The German infantry attacked in large numbers, launching something like a “psychic attack.” As the enemies approached, Voronov suddenly began to mow them down with dagger-like, murderous fire. Dozens of enemy corpses remained on the ground, and the attackers retreated. But they launched a second attack, keeping the discovered machine-gun point under fire. All the brave men were seriously injured, and Ilya himself was wounded. But he, overcoming the pain, continued to mow down the approaching Germans with bursts of fire, and when the cartridges ran out, he fought back with grenades until the enemy’s attack was drowned out again. In this battle, the brave guardsman destroyed about a hundred enemies. When his comrades carried him, bleeding, from the territory of the fortified house, doctors in the medical battalion removed about twenty fragments from him. Ilya Vasilyevich Voronov remained alive, after the war he and Rodimtsev often met, carried on extensive correspondence, were strong friends, and this friendship extended to the Rodimtsev family - Ekaterina Osipovna, daughters Irina and Natalya, son Ilya.

Pavlov's house was marked as a fortress on Field Marshal Paulus's personal map. The Germans believed that it was defended by forces of at least a battalion. The building played an extremely important role in the defense system of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment; its garrison kept all adjacent streets under fire. The Germans, who conquered France within two weeks, in two months failed not only to knock out the guards from Pavlov’s house, but even, with the exception of prisoners, never even set foot on the threshold of the building. And after Soviet troops launched a counterattack near Stalingrad on November 19, the garrison of the building went on the offensive along with all the units of the regiment. He took part in the storming of the Milk House in the city center. In this battle, brothers-in-arms - Lieutenant Afanasyev and Sergeant Pavlov - were seriously wounded.
Only in April 1945 did front roads bring Pavlov and Rodimtsev together again.

- Where is your Hero Star? - asked Rodimtsev. It turns out that Pavlov’s idea was lost in the headquarters back in 1942. Then Alexander Ilyich ensured that the world-famous sergeant was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Alexander Ilyich himself received the Order of the Red Star during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Ya.F. Pavlov, hero of the Battle of Stalingrad:

Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev was always with us in battle formations. He encouraged the tired, promoted the capable, and rewarded those who distinguished themselves. Iron will, high skill, courage, courage in battle, fatherly care for the soldier - all this created for him enormous authority. Our division was a single, tightly knit fighting team. Every soldier, sergeant and officer, did not hesitate to follow their commander.

At the beginning of November 1942, a letter of appeal from soldiers of the 13th Guards Rifle Division to all defenders of Stalingrad appeared in the newspaper of the 62nd Army:

Brothers in Arms! A few days ago we decided to write to you to tell you about our struggle against the hated German occupiers. When this letter was written, we received an appeal to the defenders of Stalingrad from glorious veterans of the Civil War, participants in the heroic defense of Tsaritsyn. With excitement we read the call of our fathers to defend the city. Everyone at these moments thought: the outcome of the war depends on us and only on us. Each of us once again became aware of how great the responsibility entrusted to us by the people and country is.

Dear friends! The Motherland ordered us to defend Stalingrad. Our fathers and mothers. Wives and children work tirelessly; day and night they produce tanks, planes, guns, shells, rifles, machine guns, and cartridges for us. They rely on us. They call on us, regardless of sacrifices and hardships, to fight as the heroes of the Tsaritsyn epic fought during the Civil War.

Here, on the outskirts of Stalingrad, during the day we had to fight off 12 or more enemy attacks. The guards stubbornly defend each of their positions. Having chosen an opportune moment, they launch counterattacks on the enemy, inflicting as many casualties as possible. In just one day of fighting in the city, we destroyed two thousand German soldiers. More than a dozen enemy tanks have been turned into a pile of scrap by our artillerymen, armor-piercers and grenade launchers.

...Responding to the call of the Tsaritsyn residents, we want to remind you, our comrades-in-arms, that the 25th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution is approaching. Let us not darken this great holiday, let us not retreat a single step. We will die, but we will defend Stalingrad. With iron tenacity and Bolshevik persistence we will beat our enemies mercilessly until they are completely destroyed.

On behalf of the soldiers, commanders and political workers of the division Hero of the Soviet Union, Guard Major General Rodimtsev, Guard Senior Battalion Commissar Marchenko, Guard Senior Lieutenant Bykov and others.

These days, Goebbels propaganda trumpeted the whole world that German troops had completely occupied Stalingrad. To expose this lie, the political department of the Stalingrad Front decided to raise and install the Red Banner at the highest point of Stalingrad - the top of Mamayev Kurgan. On the day of the anniversary of the October Revolution, October 7, a group of political workers of the 62nd Army and the 13th Guards Division hoisted a scarlet banner on the mound, and cameraman Captain V.I. Orlyankin captured it on film against the background of a panorama of front-line Stalingrad. Rodimtsev's guards provided security and cover for the group that planted the flag. The footage shot by a front-line cameraman was included in the release of military newsreels, and the whole world saw them.

Operation Uranus and its consequences

And on November 19-20, Operation Uranus began. The headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the General Staff of the Red Army had been preparing it since September, from the very days when Rodimtsev’s 13th Guards Division, having crossed the Volga, began its epic defense of Stalingrad. And it was precisely the resilience of those who held back the enemy’s onslaught on the right bank of the Volga that made possible the crushing counterattack of the Red Army.

At 7:30 a.m., salvoes of rocket artillery in the Don and Southwestern fronts, north and south of Stalingrad, began an 80-minute artillery barrage unprecedented in the history of wars in the density and power of fire, and then the formations of these fronts went on the offensive. The next day, the troops of the Stalingrad Front began to advance. Units and formations of the 62nd Army, including Rodimtsev’s division, also took part in this offensive. Fighting in the streets, they were able to significantly push the enemy away from the banks of the Volga and inflict serious losses on him, recapturing many streets and neighborhoods from the Germans. And on November 23, the 45th Tank Brigade of the 4th Tank Corps in the area of ​​the Sovetsky village east of Stalingrad joined with the 36th Mechanized Brigade of the 4th Mechanized Corps, closing the encirclement ring around the troops of the 6th Army and the 4th German Tank Army. There were 22 fascist divisions and more than 160 separate enemy units in the cauldron.
In the following months, Rodimtsev's guards crushed the enemy and pinned down his forces on the internal front of the encirclement. The actions of Soviet troops on this front, including the 62nd Army of V.I. Chuikov, were of enormous importance in order to prevent the release of the encircled fascist group from the outside.

Field Marshal Manstein, who led the new Army Group Don, created specifically to break through the Soviet ring of encirclement in the Stalingrad area, put forward a plan - to break through the encirclement with simultaneous attacks: from the outside - with the forces of his army group from the Tormosin and Kotelnikovsky areas, and from the inside - by the forces of the encircled 6th German Army. Hitler approved this plan, but when he asked the commander of the 6th Army, Paulus, whether he could “strike and at the same time hold the defense along the Volga,” he answered in the negative. The Fuhrer's favorite Paulus, already surrounded and promoted to field marshal by Hitler to boost morale, had no time for unblocking strikes: his defenses along the Volga were already bursting at the seams.

In the early morning of January 26, 1943, Rodimtsev received a call from the commander of the 34th Guards Regiment, Panikhin.

“Artillery fire can be heard from the west,” he reported. — Shells are exploding in the German rear.

- Ours are coming!

Half an hour later, Rodimtsev’s guards met with the advanced units of the 21st Army. A multivocal “Hurray” was heard, accompanied by machine gun fire. The surrounded German troops in Stalingrad were cut in two in the middle of the city - into northern and southern groups. And on January 31, the southern group, operating in the center of the city, with which the guards of the 13th Rifle Division fought fierce battles for several months, stopped resisting. Field Marshal Paulus and his staff surrendered.

Back in September 1942, in the first days of the fighting of the 13th Guards on the right bank of the Volga, someone wrote in meter-long letters on the wall that ran over the river along the embankment: “Here Rodimtsev’s guardsmen stood to the death.” And in the days when the great Battle of Stalingrad ended in victory, others were added to these words: “By surviving, we defeated death.”

There are no reviews for "Stalingrad"

1919-1924
worked as a laborer on the farm of the “kulak”;

1924-1927
an apprentice shoemaker on the farm of a “kulak”;

15.09.1927
drafted into the ranks of the Red Army;

09.1927-09.1929
Red Army soldier of the 18th Rifle Convoy Battalion, Saratov;

09.1929-03.1932
cadet, squad leader military school them. All-Russian Central Executive Committee, from which he graduated with excellent marks, receiving the officer rank of “lieutenant”;

03.1932-03.1933
platoon commander of the regimental school of the 6th cavalry regiment of the Moscow Military District;

11.1936-09.1937
volunteered to fight in Spain on the side of the Republican troops, squadron commander;

09.1937-01.1938
commander of the 61st cavalry regiment of the Moscow Military District;

01.1938-05.1939
student of the Military Academy named after. Frunze, Moscow;

05.1939-10.1940
assistant division commander of the Belarusian Special Forces. IN;

05.1939-10.1940
assistant commander of the 36th cavalry division of the Belarusian Special Forces. IN;

10.1940-05.1941
student of the Military Academy of Cavalry and Navigation Staff of the Red Army Air Force;

05.1941-12.1941
commander of the 5th Airborne Brigade of the Odessa Military District, Southwestern Front;

12.1941-04.1943
commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Division (b/82 SD) of the South-Western, Don and Stalingrad fronts;

04.1943-03.1946
commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Corps, Steppe, 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts and the Central Group of Forces;

03.1946-01.1947
at the disposal of ground forces personnel;

03.1947-02.1951
commander of the 11th Guards Rifle Corps of the Moscow Military District;

02.1951-06.1953
assistant to the commander of the district troops for the combat unit of the East Siberian Military District, Irkutsk;

06.1953-08.1956
chief military adviser and military attaché at the USSR mission in Albania;

11.1956-05.1960
First Deputy Commander of the Northern Military District;

05.1960-09.1966
commander and member of the Army Military Council, 1st Army of the Kyiv Military District;

1960-1977
military consultant to the Group of Inspectors General of the USSR Ministry of Defense;

22.10.1937
awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union

02.06.1945
A.I. Rodimtsev was awarded the 2nd medal for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the Command on the front of the fight against the German invaders. Golden Star", he is awarded the title of twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev was awarded more than 40 orders and medals of the Soviet Union and other countries.

1949
a bronze bust was erected in his homeland.

April 17, 1977
buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.
_____________________________

Childhood, pre-war years

In the harsh, spacious steppes of the Orenburg region, blown through by the prickly winds, there is a large village of Sharlyk - a regional center on the old highway from Orenburg to Kazan. On its central square there is a bronze bust - a statue of a man in general's shoulder straps, with two Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union. The face is detached, thoughtful, narrowed eyes seem to be peering somewhere into the distance - either into the horizon beyond the edge of the village, or into the space of past memorable days.
This is Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev - a legendary man, whose name is inseparable from the history of the Great Patriotic War, from its perhaps most grandiose battle - Stalingrad. He became the first Hero of the Soviet Union - a native of the Orenburg region, and then the first twice Hero - a native of this steppe region. And although the unfading feat and high fame Rodimtsev is the heritage of our entire people, our Fatherland, it is quite natural that, first of all, Alexander Ilyich is the eternal pride and love of his fellow countrymen - Sharly residents, all Orenburg residents.

Study, beginning of a career

And for Alexander Rodimtsev the time to part with his native land came in 1927. He was drafted into the Red Army. Alexander Ilyich later recalled:
“In the fall of 1927, I appeared before the draft board, very much afraid that I would be rejected. I deliberately stuck out my chest in front of the doctors, tensed my muscles, tried to walk heavily and waddle: what a strength, they say, the floors are shaking under me! But the physical labor, familiar to me from childhood, the heat and cold hardened me enough, and the doctors unanimously said: I’m good.

Spanish Civil War

However, soon duty dictated a rather long break in this family idyll. This happened shortly after the word “Spain” sounded like an alarm bell in newspaper reports and radio broadcasts.

By the mid-30s of the 20th century, the black shadow of fascism was already creeping across Europe. Mussolini ruled in Italy, Adolf Hitler ruled in Germany. Realizing the terrible danger emanating from the misanthropic fascist ideology and politics, the progressive forces of European countries rallied and united in Popular Fronts, whose main goal is to prevent pro-fascist regimes from coming to power at home.

Homecoming

In the fall of 1937, Rodimtsev left Madrid and, after a short stop in Valencia, arrived in Paris. From here he went by train to his homeland. It turned out that he had the opportunity to travel from the French capital to Moscow in the same carriage with the Soviet pilots Gromov, Danilin and Yumashev, who had shortly before made a heroic non-stop flight from the USSR to the USA. When the State border was left behind and the train rolled across Soviet soil, the glorious trinity was honored at almost every station - they held flying rallies right on the platforms, made speeches, presented memorable gifts, and showered them with flowers. An outwardly inconspicuous man in a civilian suit, thin, tanned under the hot southern sun, watched the meeting with a smile. He was sincerely happy for the Soviet aviators and admired them. And then his thoughts returned to the Spanish land scorched by fire, to the comrades who remained there, then he thought about home, about family.

The Great Patriotic War

“A difficult situation has created in the Kiev direction. An order was received to transfer our corps near Kyiv, to the Brovary-Boryspil area. You and your paratroopers must go there on the night of July 11th.

Already while loading into cars at the Pervomaisk station, the brigade was subjected to a fierce raid by enemy aircraft. German planes bombed and strafed the trains carrying paratroopers almost the entire time they were en route to their destination. Station buildings, houses in towns and villages, grain fields, and steppe grasses were burning. The first killed and wounded appeared in the brigade units. The railway junctions were filled with refugees - mostly women, children, and old people.

Stalingrad

On July 12, 1942, the Stalingrad Front included the 62nd, 63rd, 64th armies, and the 21st, 28th, 38th, 51st, 57th separate armies from the headquarters reserve. But already on August 7, the South-Eastern Front was separated from the Stalingrad Front (commander - Eremenko), to which the 64th, 57th, 51st Armies, the 1st Guards Army, and a little later the 62nd Army were transferred.

Hitler set the task of capturing Stalingrad in OKW Directive No. 45 of July 23. The Germans needed the advancement of the right wing of Army Group B, the core of which was the 6th Army, to the Stalingrad region and the occupation of the lower Volga region in order to interrupt the connection between the south of the European part of the USSR and the center of the country. Ensure successful offensive operations of Army Group “A” in the Caucasian direction.

Promotion and return home

After the victorious completion of the Battle of Stalingrad, the 13th Guards Rifle Division was awarded the second military order - the Red Banner. The 62nd Army under the command of Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, in which Rodimtsev’s soldiers passed with honor all the tests of the most difficult months of defense of the Volga stronghold, was transformed into the 8th Guards. But the 13th Guards Division now had to fight from the banks of the Volga to the west as part of the 5th Guards Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Alexey Semenovich Zhadov. This army, while still the 68th, also fought in Stalingrad and distinguished itself in its defense, for which it was awarded the title of guards.

And Alexander Ilyich himself had to part ways these days with the formation that had become dear to him, with the guardsmen of the 13th, whom the “fire battles” they had gone through together made Rodimtsev’s true brothers-in-arms. The division commander, whose name truly became legendary during the Battle of Stalingrad, was nominated for promotion, and he was soon to leave for Moscow for a new assignment. And the 13th Guards was taken over by a new commander - Major General Gleb Vladimirovich Baklanov.

Kursk Bulge

Rodimtsev took command of the corps when the troops of the 5th Guards Army were preparing for active combat operations in the Oryol-Kursk direction. Heroic Stalingrad, having survived, turned the war back. Now through these lands the Red Army is driving the German invaders to the west.

However, at first it was necessary not to attack, but to hold the defense.

Counterattack

Without giving respite to the retreating enemy, units of the 32nd Guards Rifle Corps developed an offensive towards Poltava - the city where early XVIII century, Russian soldiers under the command of Peter I defeated the Swedish army Charles XII. In the very place where 230 years ago Russian troops crossed the Worksla to the battle site, Rodimtsev’s guards came out to the river. The Germans blew up the bridge, but the soldiers of the 32nd Rifle Corps, under enemy fire, using crossings established by sappers, on boats, rafts, and improvised means, successfully crossed Worksla and on September 22 broke into Poltava. For this victory, the divisions of the corps were given the honorary name “Poltava”. However, the joy of victory for Rodimtsev was overshadowed by a heavy loss: in the battles for the Ukrainian city, his comrade Dmitry Panikhin, commander of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment, was mortally wounded. A few days later he died from his wounds.

The onslaught of the Red Army was now unstoppable. Every day, Soviet troops liberated dozens of settlements. How different it was from the Stalingrad autumn of 1942, when the division under the command of Rodimtsev fought for every city block, every floor. But it was precisely the successes in those battles that became the seed from which victories now grew on the soil of Ukraine...

After the Great Patriotic War

The war ended, but the service continued. From Czechoslovakia, Alexander Ilyich returned to Moscow to undergo retraining at the Military Academy named after. M. V. Frunze. At this time, the hard times of war made themselves felt. Although neither the bullet nor the shrapnel hit Rodimtsev, he caught a cold in his feet in Stalingrad.

Rodimtsev suffered frostbite at his Stalingrad command post - in a reinforced concrete pipe under an embankment. And after the war, the pain in his legs was so severe that at one time he walked on crutches.

|