EXPLOSED AND FORGOTTEN

HISTORICAL FACT

“We flooded with our blood, filled up the enemies with our corpses. … It's hard to write about it. It is better, of course, when it is proclaimed under the drumbeat that we have won. But how did they win?” Front-line writer Viktor ASTAFYEV This section is dedicated to...

“We flooded with our blood, filled up the enemies with our corpses. … It's hard to write about it. It is better, of course, when it is proclaimed under the drumbeat that we have won. But how did you win?

Front-line writer Viktor ASTAFYEV

This section is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Victory. It is rightly said that the war is not over until the last dead soldier is buried. And he's definitely not buried. This means that the war continues, which means that it will take a long time to go to the final, just Victory for everyone and everyone.

How many died in that war? Each "boss" of the country called the people numbers according to their interests - ideological, propagandistic and simply personal: 6 million Stalin, 20 - Khrushchev ... And today even 27 million do not surprise anyone. But even this figure, they say, is not final. And each time, our total losses were used to settle accounts with the historical truth, as if we are not talking about people, but about decommissioned property: written off - forget it.

And, I must say, we forget. This is generally a property of human memory: it puts the most difficult moments in its most secluded corners. To pull them out of these depths is our desire. The Great Patriotic War was such a tremendous shock for several generations at once that it cannot be left at the mercy of ideology. Neither the past "stagnant", nor the current "sucks". The war is not over until the whole truth about it is told. We use our right to at least partially fill with content its unwritten, white pages.

On July 4, 1942, the message of the Soviet Information Bureau "250 days of the heroic defense of Sevastopol" was heard on the radio and was published in the central newspapers. It opened with the following words: "By order of the Supreme Command of the Red Army on July 3, Soviet troops left the city of Sevastopol ...". It would seem that the usual sad information in the difficult time of the war. But the fact is that the troops did not leave Sevastopol. They were left there.

There will be no crossing

On October 28, 1941, the 11th German Army of Colonel General Erich Manstein (6 infantry divisions), breaking through the Ishun positions, destroying most of the two Soviet armies (12 rifle and 4 cavalry divisions), captured almost the entire Crimea within two weeks. By mid-November, Sevastopol was firmly blocked by land. For its defense, the Headquarters created a rather powerful Sevastopol Defensive Region (SOR), which included the forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the Primorsky Army. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky, was appointed head of the SOR, and Major General Ivan Petrov, commander of the Primorsky Army, was appointed his deputy.

In May 1942, the Germans captured Kerch, which allowed them to throw all available forces at Sevastopol. This was well understood in the Soviet Headquarters. On May 28, the commander of the North Caucasian Front, Marshal Semyon Budyonny, sent a “specific” directive No. 00201 / op. to the leadership of the SOR:

“... I order:

1. Warn all command, commanding, Red Army and Red Navy personnel that Sevastopol must be held at any cost. There will be no crossing to the Caucasian coast ... "

On June 7, after five days of artillery and aviation preparation, the Germans launched an attack on the city. During fierce fighting on June 26, they captured the entire outer line of defense. In the following days, the situation deteriorated rapidly, the Germans, having captured Sapun Mountain and Malakhov Kurgan, practically decided the fate of the city.

On the morning of June 30, OKTYABRSKY sent the following telegram:

“9.50.

Kuznetsov, Budyonny, Isakov.

The enemy broke in from the North side to the Ship side. The fighting took on the character of street fighting. The remaining troops were very tired, faltered, although the majority continued to fight heroically <…>.

Based on this particular situation, I ask you to allow me on the night of June 30 to July 1 to take 200-250 people of responsible workers, commanders to the Caucasus by plane, and also, if possible, to leave Sevastopol myself, leaving here my deputy, Major General Petrov " .

Admiral KUZNETSOV, People's Commissar of the Navy, had to languidly wait all day for an answer:

“19.00. The evacuation of senior officials and your departure to the Caucasus are allowed by the Headquarters.”

But PETROV turned out to be no bastard either. On the same evening, at a meeting of the military council, he managed to turn things around so that not he, but another, remained in command of the troops in Sevastopol. Then, with a sense of accomplishment, he gave the order to the army:

"Combat order. 30/VI.

42 21.30.

... The army, continuing to fulfill its task, goes on the defensive at the turn: Cape Fiolent - Hut. Pyatnitsky - the origins of the Streletskaya Bay. The defense of this area is entrusted to the group of Major General P. G. Novikov ... ".

This vague order is explained by looking at the map. It turned out that the troops left the city and retreated to the south, to the sea. The choice fell on Novikov for the simple reason that his division was defending the extreme sector of the Sevastopol land - Cape Khersones.

On the night of July 1, 13 Douglas aircraft landed at the Chersonesos airfield, intended to evacuate the authorities. In small groups, these cadres, precious to Stalin and Budyonny, approached the cars. Trying not to attract the attention of those located near the airfield in the hope of evacuating numerous wounded soldiers and sailors. But not everyone managed to slip quietly into the rescue hatches. Historian G.I. VANEEV, who has been studying the defense of Sevastopol for a long time, cites the following fact:

“When the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Oktyabrsky, and a member of the military council of the fleet, divisional commissar Kulakov, approached the plane, they were recognized. The soldiers who had accumulated at the airfield began to make noise, random shooting into the air began ... But Mikhailov, the military commissar of the aviation group, hastened to calm them down, explaining that the command was leaving to organize the evacuation from Sevastopol.

To the credit of Boris Mikhailov, it should be said that he was also going to fly in this plane, but under the impression of a minute he decided to stay. Later he led the defense of the airfield and died in one of the desperate counterattacks, trying to break into the mountains with the remaining defenders of Sevastopol.

General Petrov decided to escape from Sevastopol in a different way. On the evening of June 29, two submarines arrived in Sevastopol, delivering ammunition and gasoline. During unloading, the commander of one of them received a written order from the Chief of Staff of the SOR, Captain 1st Rank Vasiliev:

“Until further notice, the Shch-209 submarine remains in Sevastopol. After unloading at dawn, you should go to the area of ​​​​the 35th battery and lie down on the ground. Come up in the dark and wait for orders.

In the adit near the 35th battery was the command post for the defense of Sevastopol. That is, the naval authorities - Oktyabrsky, Kulakov, Vasiliev - provided for themselves the option of flight even before contacting the Headquarters. And when permission was received and official planes flew after them, they handed over the prepared version to the disposal of the land authorities.

As soon as it got dark, General Petrov and with him the other authorities of the Primorsky Army, unnoticed by their subordinates, went out to the pier through an underground passage. The tugboat waiting there delivered them safely to Shch-209.

From Novorossiysk, OKTYABRSKY sent a report to Headquarters with a copy to Budyonny:

“Based on the current situation at 24:00 on June 30, 1942, and the state of the troops, I believe that the remnants of the SOR troops can hold out on a limited line for one, maximum two days <…>.

At the same time I report: together with me on the night of July 1, about 600 people of the leadership of the army, navy and civilian organizations were taken out of Sevastopol with all available means ... "

He asked for 250, but got 600 ... Although here the brave admiral was cunning. In fact, by hook or by crook, Sevastopol managed to leave 1228 military and party officials.

On the night of July 1, it was reported from the headquarters of the fleet to Sevastopol that Budyonny ordered to send all available watercraft to evacuate, as it was said, "wounded soldiers and command personnel."

In Sevastopol, they understood this in their own way. The last telegram sent by NOVIKOV to Budyonny:

“20.45. Command staff of 2000 people in readiness for transportation ... ".

It got dark, but the ships promised by Budyonny never appeared. Why, only the “First Marshal” himself and the Headquarters, represented by Comrade Stalin, knew. Then Novikov used his “stash”: a small boat No. 112, which was at the disposal of the headquarters. Together with him, 70 of the most important chiefs, mostly staff officers, quartermasters and political workers, were loaded there to the eyeballs. At about two o'clock in the morning on July 2, the boat went to sea. But at dawn, it was discovered by Italian torpedo boats and, after a short fight, was taken in tow.

After the flight and capture of Novikov, there is no need to talk about any management of the remaining troops. Left to themselves, the defenders of Sevastopol continued scattered and chaotic resistance in several unconnected areas.

According to the report submitted by Oktyabrsky and Kulakov to the General Staff on July 9, 1942, the total strength of the SOR as of June 1 was 130,125; irretrievable losses amounted to 31,068 people; 17,894 wounded were evacuated before June 28; 1207 died in field hospitals. Knowing these once deeply secret figures, it is easy to calculate the number of the remaining defenders of Sevastopol - 79,956 people. Almost 80,000 soldiers and sailors heroically defending the city, the Headquarters and, first of all, Stalin, who gave the go-ahead for the shameful secret flight, were abandoned "as unnecessary." Doomed to death and captivity.

Medsanbat No. 427

Member of the defense of Sevastopol, military doctor I.S. YATMANOV recalled:

“With the joint forces and means of the medical service of the fleet and the Primorsky Army, powerful medical battalions No. 47 and 427 were deployed in the Inkerman adits of Champanvinstroy ... These hospitals of the medical battalions were quite powerful, they had a number of operating rooms, where doctors simultaneously worked on several tables ... In In these kilometer-long Inkerman adits, chambers were deployed where the victims were accommodated.

From the memoirs of G.P. CHUMAKOVA, at that time a lieutenant who was being treated in the medical battalion No. 427:

“... After the operation, the stretcher was transferred to the ward. A chamber was a huge room carved into the rock. Its end was lost in the distance. The high walls vanished into the semi-darkness. Droplets of water dripped down on them. Ahead, a single candle burned. There were a lot of people in the room and there was a monotonous monotonous noise all the time. Sometimes it was interrupted by loud groans, shouts of commands. There was a passage in the middle. On both sides of it - in two rows of beds. They have the wounded. They lie several people on one bed, lie on a stretcher, sit on stools, if there is nowhere to lie down. The ceiling is not visible. There is a terrible smell in the room, in which everything is mixed up. This is the smell of blood, pus, feces, all kinds of medicines. And the roar, the unceasing roar. Some groan, others talk, others command, swear. They swear terribly, with desperation, looking for grenades, cartridges. <...> My stretcher is put aside, on the aisle. There is nowhere else to put it, there are no empty seats. Everything is overflowing. <...> Together with the fighters and commanders, the affected residents of the city are also lying here: women, children, the elderly. Their healthy relatives are also here. <...> Each wounded was given a bottle of champagne every day. For the first few days, hot food was regularly distributed. Then, when the kitchens burned down, the daily diet began to be a can of canned fish and champagne ... ".

Lieutenant Chumakov was incredibly lucky. He was taken out of Sevastopol on the destroyer "Tashkent" on the night of June 25.

According to Yatmanov, “the 47th medical battalion ... just before the German invasion of Inkerman ... somehow managed to take out the wounded. The seriously wounded and wearable patients were transported to the area of ​​Kamysheva Bay ... The walking wounded were dismissed, and they themselves, some on foot, some in passing cars, got to the area of ​​Kamysheva Bay.

But the 427th medical battalion remained in adits until the last moment.

From the memoirs of the commander of the 11th German Army, Colonel General Erich MANSTEIN:

“... On June 28, the 50th division managed to force the Chernaya River in the lower reaches and occupy Inkerman. A tragedy occurred here that showed what fanaticism the Bolsheviks fought against. High above Inkerman rose a long, rocky wall extending far to the south. In this wall there were huge galleries that served in the Crimea as wine cellars for sparkling wine factories. Along with large stocks of this drink, the Bolsheviks created ammunition depots here; in addition, these premises were used by them to accommodate thousands of wounded and fleeing civilians. When our troops broke into Inkerman, the whole rock behind the settlement trembled from the monstrous force of the explosion. A wall about 30 meters high collapsed over a distance of about 300 meters.

Soviet sailors and infantrymen kept the railway station and the approaches to the adits for another day. The tragedy of the medical battalion-427 occurred on June 29, 1942. The Germans then, by interviewing prisoners of war, conducted their own investigation and found out the death toll - 3 thousand people. And also that the explosion was carried out by a certain "saenko bomber", the order to blow up the medical battalion was given by the head of the rear of the Black Sea Fleet, Rear Admiral Zayats.

According to Soviet sources hidden deep in the archives, it was possible to find out that on the 29th, on Monday, an order was received to undermine the branch of the artillery arsenal in Inkerman. The task of blowing up 11 Inkerman adits was carried out not by some ordinary sappers, but by quite responsible persons: military engineer of the 2nd rank P. Savenko and lieutenant F. Zudin. Did the chief of logistics know that the field hospital and the civilian population were in the adits?

Defense medal

The last paragraph of the message of the Soviet Information Bureau of July 4, 1942 was as follows:

"The glory of the main organizers of the heroic defense of Sevastopol - Vice Admiral Oktyabrsky, Major General Petrov ... - will go down in the history of the Patriotic War against the Nazi scoundrels as one of the most brilliant pages."

Soon after these events, the medal "For the Defense of Sevastopol" was established. Its first numbers were received by Oktyabrsky, Petrov, Zayats and others from the list of 1228 surnames.

SPECIAL OPINION

The details can be interpreted in two ways. The submarine in the study proposed to our readers, in my opinion, was an indispensable part of the plan for evacuating the secret documentation of our group. Such things are planned in advance, months before the retreat. And a group of high-ranking fugitives only took advantage of the opportunity, and did not prepare a secret escape plan at all. Ultimately, this picture does not change.

A scientific, that is, honest, approach to the subject will instantly tell us that the entire history of the Second World War is full of examples of heroism, redeeming someone else's cowardice or meanness of command. When our troops were dying in Sevastopol, Saint-Exupery wrote in his diary how hard he experienced the unseemly behavior of the British during the Dunkirk disaster on May 27, 1940. Then they managed to evacuate their utterly defeated army, which had abandoned weapons and equipment, only thanks to the stamina of the French, whose evacuation they then refused to contribute with their fleet. On May 20, the British command decided to evacuate its troops without informing the allies about it. And when the Germans reached the distance of open fire on the harbor of Dunkirk, quite a few commanders found an excuse to abandon their units in the chaos of night loadings. Then heaps of reports and personal letters to relatives were written, explaining that "it was impossible otherwise."

The Allies, who entered Paris in the summer of 1945 on the back of the Soviet army, are not spoiled by historical victories. Their historians are very reluctant to write about shameful episodes like the flight from Dunkirk in 1940 or the completely destroyed landing on Strasbourg in 1945. And they can be understood - the stain of defeat is not erased by time and later interpretations. But as a person passionate about that period, and a historian by education, I admit that in general their written history is more honest: it was not so ideological. Yes, and Montgomery, no match for Oktyabrsky and Petrov, stood at the head of the rearguard in Dunkirk to the last.

So why should we be afraid? Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers defeated the most powerful army in the last century. They did this in spite of the often mediocre, and sometimes even criminal, command of Stalin and his Headquarters. They paid for their contempt for the life of ordinary military men with losses unheard of in history. The souls of the heroes who died in Sevastopol are fed by the Eternal Flame in the Alexander Garden. Against the background of the dark truth extracted from the archives, it is only brighter and cleaner: we won, we can afford this truth.

Valery SHIRYAEV

VERBATIM

The history of Sevastopol knew, however,

and other officers who led his defense. Was it

in 1854. We have no doubt that, defending Sevastopol a hundred years later, a huge number of soldiers did not drop their past glory. The highest award for them was not titles, but their own names.

and patronymics in the memory of history. Here's what it looks like according to the researchers

and eyewitnesses.

Academician E.V. TARLE:

“The indefatigable activity of Nakhimov in defense was intensified and developed in the most diverse directions. They competed with Kornilov, showing unheard-of courage. It was difficult to surprise with this in Sevastopol, but both of them still surprised both sailors and soldiers. On October 5, 1854, at sunrise, the terrible “first” bombardment thundered from the most advanced naval artillery guns of that time. Three admirals - Nakhimov, Kornilov and Istomin - from dawn led the return fire of Russian batteries and went around the bastions. Kornilov and Nakhimov met on the fifth bastion that day and spent a long time there together under the hellish fire of the enemy.

Flag Officer GANDRE:

“On the 5th bastion, we found Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov, who disposed of the batteries, as on a ship: here, as there, he was in a frock coat with epaulettes, which greatly distinguished him from others in view of enemy shooters. While talking with Pavel Stepanovich, Kornilov went up to the banquet at the outgoing corner of the bastion. From there, they monitored for a long time the damage inflicted on the enemy by our artillery. Cannonballs whistled around, dousing us with earth and the blood of the dead; bombs burst around, hitting the servants of the guns.

Captain ASLANBEGOV:

“Kornilov was mortally wounded by a cannonball at 12 o’clock in the afternoon on Malakhov Kurgan. The fire was already weakening, the bombardment was coming to an end, when Nakhimov learned the fatal news ... In the evening, having learned about the death of Kornilov, I went to bow to his ashes and, entering the hall, I saw Nakhimov, who was crying and kissing his dead comrade.

From the correspondence of TOTLEBEN:

“I am reporting a disaster that has befallen us. On March 7, 1855, Admiral Istomin (who led the defense of Malakhov Kurgan. - Novaya Gazeta) was killed by a cannonball on the Kamchatka redoubt. Shortly before that, he led the crews on a sortie, calling: “My sirs, defenders, follow me with a bayonet!”

"Sevastopol

messenger":

On June 28, 1855, Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov was mortally wounded by a bullet in the left temple on the "Kornilov battery" under heavy enemy fire. His last words were addressed to the enemy: "However, how cleverly they shoot."