On October 5, 1941, Soviet aerial reconnaissance discovered a 25-kilometer German motorized column, which was moving at full speed along the Warsaw Highway in the direction of Yukhnov.

They had 198 kilometers left to Moscow.

200 tanks, 20 thousand infantry in vehicles, accompanied by aviation and artillery, posed a mortal threat to Moscow. There were no Soviet troops on this route. Only in Podolsk there were two military schools: infantry - PPU (head of the school, Major General Vasily Smirnov, number - 2000 cadets) and artillery - PAU (head of the school, Colonel Ivan Strelbitsky, number - 1,500 cadets). With the beginning of the war, Komsomol students from various universities were sent to schools. The 3-year program of study was reorganized into a six-month one. Many of the cadets only had time to study until September.

Head of the artillery school Strelbitsky. in his memoirs he later wrote: “There were quite a few among them who had never shaved, never worked, never traveled anywhere without dad and mom.” But this was the last reserve of the Headquarters in this direction, and it had no choice but to plug the giant gap that had formed in the defense of Moscow with the boys.

On October 5, about 2,000 cadets of the artillery and 1,500 cadets of the infantry schools were removed from classes, alerted and sent to the defense of Maloyaroslavets.

A hastily formed combined detachment of cadets removed from training on combat alert was given the task: to occupy the Ilyinsky combat sector of the Mozhaisk defense line of Moscow in the Maloyaroslavets direction and block the enemy’s path for 5-7 days until the General Headquarters reserves arrived from the depths of the country, recalls Chairman of the Council of Veterans of Podolsk Military Schools Nikolai Merkulov. - In order to prevent the enemy from occupying the Ilyinsky defensive sector first, an advance detachment of two companies was formed. He advanced to meet the enemy. At the crossing, the cadets met a group of our airborne troops led by Captain Storchak. They were dropped from an airplane to organize the work of partisan detachments behind German lines. Realizing how important it was to delay the Nazis at least for a few hours, Storchak ordered his paratroopers to unite with the cadets and take up defensive positions. For five days they held back the advance of superior enemy forces. During this time, 20 tanks, 10 armored vehicles were knocked out and about a thousand enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed. But the losses on our side were enormous. By the time they reached the area of ​​the village of Ilyinskoye, only 30-40 fighters remained in the cadet companies of the forward detachment.

At this time, the main cadet forces were deployed at the Ilyinsky line. They set up their training artillery pieces in pre-prepared pillboxes and took up defensive positions along a ten-kilometer front, with only three hundred men per kilometer. But these were not trained special forces soldiers, not samurai, who were brought up in a stern military spirit from childhood, these were ordinary boys who had just graduated from school.

On the morning of October 11, the cadets' positions were subjected to massive bombing and artillery shelling. After this, the column began to move towards the bridge at higher speeds. German tanks and armored personnel carriers with infantry. But the Nazi attack was repulsed. The Germans, incomparably superior to the cadets in combat power and numbers, were defeated. They could neither reconcile nor understand what was happening.

In the afternoon of October 13, the Nazi tank column managed to bypass the 3rd battalion, reach the Warsaw Highway and attack the cadet positions from the rear. The Germans resorted to a trick; red flags were attached to the tanks, but the cadets discovered the deception. They turned their guns back. In a fierce battle, the tanks were destroyed.

The German command was furious; the Nazis could not understand how the elite SS troops were holding back just two schools, why their renowned soldiers, armed to the teeth, could not break through the defenses of these boys. They tried in every way to break the spirit of the cadets. They scattered leaflets over the positions with the following content: “Valiant red cadets, you fought courageously, but now your resistance has lost its meaning, the Warsaw highway is ours almost to Moscow, in a day or two we will enter it. You are real soldiers, we respect your heroism, come over to our side, with us you will receive a friendly welcome, delicious food and warm clothes. These leaflets will serve as your pass."

Not a single boy gave up! Wounded, exhausted, hungry, already fighting with captured weapons obtained in battle, they did not lose their presence of mind.

The situation in the Ilyinsky combat area was steadily deteriorating - the Germans brought down a barrage of artillery and mortar fire on our positions. The air force struck one blow after another. The defenders' forces were quickly dwindling; there were not enough shells, cartridges and grenades. By October 16, the surviving cadets had only five guns, and then with incomplete gun crews.

On the morning of October 16, the enemy launched a new powerful fire strike along the entire front of the Ilyinsky combat sector. The cadet garrisons in the remaining pillboxes and bunkers were shot by direct fire from tanks and cannons. The enemy slowly moved forward, but in his way was a camouflaged pillbox on the highway near the village of Sergeevka, commanded by the commander of the 4th PAU battery, Lieutenant A.I. Aleshkin. The crew of cadet Belyaev’s 45-mm training gun opened fire and knocked out several combat vehicles. The forces were unequal, and everyone understood this. Unable to storm the pillbox from the front, the Nazis attacked it from the rear in the evening and threw grenades through the embrasure. The heroic garrison was almost completely destroyed.

On the night of October 17, the command post of Podolsk schools moved to the location of the 5th PPU company in the village of Lukyanovo. On October 18, the cadets were subjected to new enemy attacks and by the end of the day the command post and the 5th company were cut off from the main forces defending Kudinovo. The commander of the combined detachment, General Smirnov, gathered the remnants of the 5th and 8th cadet companies and organized the defense of Lukyanovo. By the evening of October 19, an order to withdraw was received. But only on October 20, at night, did the cadets begin to leave the Ilyinsky line to join the army units occupying the defense on the Nara River. And from there, on October 25, the survivors set off on a march to the city of Ivanovo, where the Podolsk schools were temporarily transferred.

In the battles at the Ilyinsky combat site, Podolsk cadets destroyed up to 5 thousand German soldiers and officers and knocked out up to 100 tanks. They completed their task - they detained the enemy at the cost of their lives.

Amazingly, not a single Podolsk cadet was awarded for this feat!

They didn’t give awards back then, there was no time for us,” Nikolai Merkulov modestly recalls. - True, we later learned that the military council of the Moscow military district (it was then also the headquarters of the Mozhaisk defense line), by its order No. 0226 of November 3, 1941, declared gratitude to the survivors.

In the memory of the national feat of the Podolsk cadets, it occupies a worthy place. In their honor, on May 7, 1975, a monument was unveiled in Podolsk. It shows a diagram of the battle lines where the heroic cadets held the defense (the authors of the monument are sculptors Yu. Rychkov and A. Myamlin, architects L. Zemskov and L. Skorb).

Monuments were also erected in the village of Ilinskoye (at the sites of battles of Podolsk cadets) - opened on May 8, 1975, in the city of Saransk - opened on May 6, 1985, at the mass grave of cadets in the area of ​​the village of Detchino - opened on May 9, 1983.

Museums or rooms of military glory have been created: in the village of Ilyinsky, Maloyaroslavets district, Kaluga region, at the sites of cadet battles, in the Podolsk city military registration and enlistment office, in 16 secondary schools in the cities of Podolsk, Klimovsk, Obninsk, Balashikha, Orekhov-Zuev, Nizhny Novgorod, Zhukovsky, Naro-Fominsk, Tallinn, Malinovka village, Kemerovo region.

Memorial plaques were installed on the building of the industrial technical school in the city of Podolsk, where the Podolsk Infantry School was located in 1941, at the entrance of the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense in the city of Podolsk, where the Podolsk Artillery School was located in 1941, on the building of the trade and economic technical school in the city of Bukhara, where from December 1941 to 1944 the Podolsk Artillery School was located.

The name of Podolsk cadets was given to an electric train on the Moscow-Serpukhov route, high school the city of Klimovsk, secondary schools in the cities of Podolsk, Obninsk, the village of Shchapovo, the village of Ilyinskoye, streets, squares and parks in the cities of Podolsk, Bukhara, Maloyaroslavets, Yoshkar-Ola, Moscow, Saransk.

The feat of the cadets is reflected in the films “If your home is dear to you”, “Battle for Moscow” (2nd part), “Last reserve of the rate”, in stories, documentary books, poetic and musical works such as “Undefeated cadets” (N Zuev, B. Rudakov, A. Golovkin), “Frontiers” (Rimma Kazakova), Cantata about Podolsk cadets (Alexandra Pakhmutova), songs “Tale of Podolsk cadets”, “At the crossing”, “Aleshkinsky pillbox” (Olga Berezovskaya) and others.

At the 23rd meeting of the Council of Deputies of the Podolsk urban district, it was decided to establish a Day of Remembrance for Podolsk cadets. It will be celebrated on October 5 - it was this day in 1941 that became decisive in the fate of the young men who later became heroes of the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. The RIAMO in Podolsk columnist found out how the Podolsk cadets fought the enemy and what the great feat of the young soldiers was.

Real heroes

Website "Moscow Region Poster"

Historical meaning heroic feat Podolsk cadets in the battle for Moscow in October 1941 at the Maloyaroslavets combat site of the Mozhaisk defense line is that with their courage, bravery, mass heroism and self-sacrifice, they, together with units of the 43rd Army, thwarted Hitler’s plan for the lightning capture of the capital of the USSR. Podolsk cadets made it possible for Soviet troops to create a strong defense on the Nara River and revive the Western Front.

2.5 thousand cadets died in the battles for Moscow. Their names were immortalized in monuments, street names in the cities of Podolsk, Maloyaroslavets, Bukhara, Saransk, Yoshkar-Ola and, of course, Moscow. In addition, five secondary schools are named after Podolsk cadets, among them school No. 18 of the Podolsk city district and school No. 4 of the Klimovsk microdistrict. Books, songs, and poems have been written about the cadets’ feat. There is also a memorial sign “Veteran of Podolsk military schools.”

Young guys

Boris Chubatyuk

Podolsk cadets are called combined detachments consisting of students from military schools in Podolsk. In October 1941, they defended the southwestern approaches to Moscow.

Podolsk Infantry School (PPU) was formed in January 1940. More than 2 thousand cadets studied there. Since December 1940, Major General Vasily Andreevich Smirnov became the head of the school.

The Podolsk Artillery School (PAS) was founded in 1939, its head was Colonel Georgy Ivanovich Balashov, who was replaced by Colonel Ivan Semenovich Strelbitsky at the end of August 1941. By this time, about 1.5 thousand cadets were studying at the school for accelerated six-month training.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, cadets of the new conscription were recruited into the PPU and PAU - boys who had just graduated from school. Having studied for only three months, they were the first to defend the city of Moscow from fascist invaders. The guys knew that they were going to their death, but they could not retreat - the enemy was heading towards the capital.

Moscow is under threat

In the early days of October 1941, in the Maloyaroslavets direction there was a threat of the Germans reaching Moscow. A significant part of the troops of the Western, Bryansk and reserve fronts of the Soviet army by this time were surrounded. Taking advantage of this, the German command sent the 57th Motorized Corps along the Warsaw Highway, and on October 5 its advanced units occupied the city of Yukhnov. The enemy approached the Mozhaisk defense line.

On the same day, October 5, the Podolsk military from the infantry and artillery schools were alerted. They had to resist the Nazis in order to delay their advance at any cost until the reserves of the Supreme Command arrived. This was an extreme measure, but there was no other way out: only 198 kilometers remained from Yukhnov to Moscow, and there were no troops to protect the capital along this route.

In order to gain time for the deployment of the main forces of the schools near Maloyaroslavets, an advance detachment consisting of the 6th company of the infantry school was advanced towards the enemy. On the evening of October 5, the cadets left Podolsk in cars, and on the morning of October 6, they drove back the German units of the 57th Corps from the Izverv River to the Ugra River.

Battle of the Ilyinsky Lines

On October 10th, the cadets of the advanced detachment reached the Ilyinsky sector of the Maloyaroslavets combat area and united with the main forces of the Podolsk military schools. At noon on October 11, large-scale battles began; the enemy threw five tanks and a company of infantry into the battle, but the cadets destroyed them.

The enemy again tried to break into the Soviet defenses on October 12, but he only managed to advance 300 meters. At eight o'clock on October 13, the Nazis opened hurricane fire from guns and mortars, and enemy bombers attacked. The Nazis also brought equipment and infantry into the battle. The enemy managed to take possession of the village of Bolshaya Shubinka.

However, at night, having surrounded the village from both sides, the cadets suddenly attacked the Germans. Early in the morning of October 14, the Nazis again began intensive artillery bombardment, after which they attacked the cadets with aviation. By the end of the day, the enemy managed to capture the first and second trenches, but was unable to completely break through the defense area.

A platoon of cadets under Lieutenant Timofeev occupied defenses near the village of Malaya Shubinka and fought in complete encirclement for the whole day on October 14. He repelled numerous enemy attacks. On the night of October 15, after the encirclement was broken, the five survivors again reached the battalion's location.

Meanwhile, the thinned forces of the battalion continued to hold back the onslaught of the enemy who had wedged itself into the defense, which, unfortunately, they could not destroy on their own. A reserve under the command of Captain Chernysh and political instructor Kurochkin came to the rescue.

Last fights

On October 15, the remnants of the battalion of Podolsk cadets, in cooperation with the detachment of Captain Chernysh, carried out seven attacks on German positions, each of which ended in hand-to-hand combat. During one of the battles, Captain Chernysh and political instructor Kurochkin were killed. The artillery cadets showed miracles of heroism and self-sacrifice. Without leaving their firing positions, they repelled the incessant attacks of the Nazis.

The cadets of the 4th battery of Lieutenant Afanasy Ivanovich Aleshkin, which was located in the village of Sergievka on the Warsaw highway, especially distinguished themselves. The pillbox with the gun was well disguised as a wooden shed; the Germans could not recognize it for a long time and suffered heavy losses. When the gun was discovered, the Nazis surrounded the pillbox and threw grenades at it. Aleshkin died a heroic death along with six cadets.

On the same day, October 15, the roar of tank engines was heard. But now he was approaching not from the west, but from the east - from the direction of Maloyaroslavets. The soldiers hoped that reinforcements had arrived, but it turned out that they were enemy tanks. The battle was difficult and brutal, but fleeting. The entire column of tanks was destroyed by Podolsk cadets, whose number, unfortunately, was also greatly reduced.

For five days the vanguard of the Podolsk military schools fought heroically, retreating from one line to another. The losses of the cadets were heavy, but the enemy suffered enormous damage in manpower and equipment. In the battles for Moscow, the cadets were able to destroy 100 tanks and about 5 thousand fascists. In the most difficult days of the war for Moscow, they won precious time, which allowed the Soviet High Command to pull up reserves from the depths of the country and save the capital from the German invaders.

The bayonets turned white from the cold,
The snow shimmered blue.
We, putting on our overcoats for the first time,
They fought harshly near Moscow.
Mustacheless, almost like children,
We knew in that furious year
That there is no one in the world instead of us
He will not die for this city.

Gray overcoats. Russians talents.
Blue radiance incorruptible eye.
On plains snowy young cadets. Began immortality. ANDlife broke off.

Many people have heard the expression “feat of Podolsk cadets,” but few can remember what it consisted of in practice. The story of Podolsk cadets is an example of both self-sacrifice and skillfully carried out defensive battle. The Wehrmacht in the fall of 1941 was seriously superior in terms of combat power to any enemy, including the Red Army, and the cadets from Podolsk were able to achieve very serious success - they gave battle and completed their task, fighting against the Wehrmacht elite - tank division, led by the famous commander.

Over the abyss

In October 1941, the Red Army suffered one of the largest military disasters in history. The attack on Moscow, launched by the Germans on September 30, quickly led to the encirclement and death in the “cauldrons” of several Soviet armies. A piece of hundreds of kilometers was torn out of the front, and the Wehrmacht rushed towards Moscow, encountering almost no resistance.

The history of the great feat began on October 5, 1941 at nine o'clock in the morning. At this time, a reconnaissance pilot flew out from the Moscow airfield and was horrified to discover, 220 kilometers from Moscow along the Warsaw Highway, a twenty-five-kilometer-long column of tanks that had broken through. These were the best ones elite troops 57th Motorized Corps under the command of General Moritz Albrecht Franz-Friedrich Feodor von Bock.

Upon returning, the pilot excitedly reported: “The Germans have broken through the defenses of our troops and are rapidly moving towards Moscow.” The command refused to believe. They sent two more pilots to check the data of the first one. The aces flew so close to the ground in a low-level flight that they saw the expression on the faces of the Nazis. Returning from a combat mission, the pilots confirmed the worst.

Stalin was shocked. Stalin's whole strategy was to fight on foreign territory. The defensive lines were not ready. Catastrophe! Stalin urgently summons Zhukov from Leningrad. Georgy Konstantinovich immediately gets into the car from the plane and drives to the front line. On the way, he passes his native village, where his mother, sister and nephews live, and thinks what will happen to them when the Germans capture his loved ones.

In the entire history of the war, this was the most dangerous moment - a moment on which not only the future of Russia, but also the whole world depended. The stakes are very high! The command makes the only possible decision: to throw the last reserve into battle - two military schools:
Podolsk Artillery School and Podolsk Infantry School. There was no one else to protect Moscow.

The headquarters needed any reserves from wherever they could be obtained. One of the sources for patching up holes in the front were military schools. The decision to use them to plug the breakthrough was monstrous, but devoid of an alternative in the fall of 1941. A cadet is a person who is much better trained than an ordinary infantryman or artilleryman. Using the school at the front as an ordinary regiment made it possible to immediately obtain a relatively well-trained unit, but this is a classic case of hammering nails with a microscope: the army is deprived of people who could later become good officers. However, there was little choice: either put the cadets into service now, or the army and the country would no longer have any “later.”

In 1939-1940, artillery and infantry schools were created in Podolsk.

Podolsk Artillery School (PAU) was created in September 1938, it trained commanders of anti-tank artillery platoons. The school simultaneously trained four artillery divisions from three training batteries of 4 platoons each. One training battery consisted of about 120 cadets. In total, about 1,500 cadets studied at the school. The storage building, which was a cadet barracks before the war

Podolsk Infantry School (PPU) was formed in January 1940, it trained infantry platoon commanders in 4 training battalions. Each battalion had 4 training companies of 120-150 cadets each. In total, more than 2,000 cadets studied at the infantry school.

The school was located in the building where the industrial technical school was located. Now there is Russian State University tourism and service. From 08/01/1941 - Podolsk Infantry School.

Before the start of the war, more than 3,500 cadets studied at the schools.

Podolsk infantry and artillery schools were raised to arms on October 5.

As a line of defense, they assigned the Maloyaroslavets fortified area - a chain of unfinished bunkers of the Mozhaisk defense line on the approaches to Moscow. There was nothing in these bunkers except concrete: the cadets installed the guns in the cannon pillboxes themselves, there were no periscopes. Concrete boxes, which had no time to be either camouflaged or equipped, became the frontier that they were supposed to defend. The forces of Army Group Center came towards them like a ram, the main strike force of which in this sector was the 19th Panzer Division under the command of an experienced general Otto von Knobelsdorff, a veteran of Poland and France, who has been fighting in the USSR since June 22.

There were less than 200 kilometers left to Moscow. Yukhnov had already fallen; on the Ugra the defense was held by a battered tank brigade. Another long section of the front was covered by a single landing battalion.

Under these conditions, 3,500 cadets from Podolsk became of enormous value, especially since they were carefully trained by teachers who all had combat experience. They went into battle under the command of their own school leaders - Major General Vasily Andreevich Smirnov and Colonel Ivan Semenovich Strelbitsky.

The village of Ilyinskoye became the main stronghold of the schools. The cadets were transferred to the front as is, with the available equipment, including training three-inch guns of the 1898 model and even requisitioned and restored museum guns.

Even before the start of the main battles, the advanced detachment of cadets met with a detachment of paratroopers of the captain Ivan Georgievich Starchak.

For 24 hours, the paratroopers held back the enemy on the eastern bank of the Ugra River. Together with the cadets, they decided to organize a night counterattack; it turned out to be unexpected for the Germans.

The paratroopers and cadets, holding back the enemy's onslaught, gradually retreated to the main line of defense - on Ilyinsky.

In 5 days of fighting, they knocked out 20 tanks, 10 armored vehicles, and destroyed up to 1 thousand enemies. But they themselves suffered heavy losses; in the cadet companies of the forward detachment, up to two-thirds of the personnel died

However, the beginning battle path turned out to be optimistic: the vanguard of the cadets joined the paratroopers defending in this area, immediately encountered German motorized reconnaissance and pushed it back beyond the Ugra.

This skirmish became the beginning of a difficult battle. The Germans were constantly pressing, and there was nowhere for the paratroopers and cadets to make up for the losses. Several companies were formed on the fly from uncontrollable soldiers of other units scattered around the area. True, they were of little use: the cadets mockingly called “steel infantry” riflemen who could not withstand the stress and went to the rear.

Having won their first victory, the guys did not want to back down. The problem of the leader of the advance detachment of cadets was to convince them to retreat to the main positions. After all, the guys took an oath “Not a step back!” At this time, the main forces of the cadets were preparing for defense. The guys dug trenches, installed guns, and wounded, bleeding soldiers, thousands, thousands of wounded, walked past them. Strelbitsky suggested that Smirnov stop the retreating troops and form additional detachments from them. To which Smirnov replied: “Look them in the eyes. They are broken. They can't help us."

Zhukov, the bravest commander, tough as steel, drove up to the cadets’ trenches. A man who began his career as a soldier in the First world war, who received three St. George Crosses for bravery. Zhukov spoke to the cadets, saying only a few words: “Children, hold out for at least five days. Moscow is in mortal danger." Notice how he addressed the cadets. He called them not soldiers, but “children.” Children stood in front of him.

And now the hour of truth has struck. The Germans immediately launched sixty tanks and five thousand soldiers into the attack. The guys repulsed the first attack. And they didn’t just fight back, but, jumping out of the trenches, went to the bayonet line. The counterattack was so swift that the Germans became cowardly, threw down their weapons and rushed from the battlefield. Invincible warriors, conquerors of Europe, fled from the schoolchildren. The boys won their first victory. This was their first fight in their lives, and they believed in themselves, they believed that they could beat the bastards. But they did not rejoice for long.

Toughie

In late autumn, the main forces of the 19th Panzer Division advanced through muddy fields. The attackers had complete air superiority and a powerful artillery fist. When talking about blitzkrieg, people most often think of tanks, but even in tank divisions one of its most important tools was powerful motorized artillery.

By October 11, overcoming the resistance of Soviet soldiers and nature, the tank division breaks through Medyn to Ilyinsky... and runs into a fortified area of ​​three dozen bunkers.

Concrete bunkers, even unfinished ones, provided better protection than ordinary trenches, and the cadets with artillery holed up in them turned out to be an unexpectedly tough nut to crack. An attempt to take the fortified area with a frontal attack failed, despite the participation of tanks, divisional howitzers and aircraft.

If on successful days the Germans covered tens of kilometers, the assault on the cadets’ positions developed slowly, and only by October 12 did the Germans manage to break through the Vypreika River and begin building a bridge across it on the flank of the school’s positions.

Ilyinskoe. German column on the bridge over the Vypreika River

Shouting- a narrow and shallow river, although with steep banks. But a division is not only tanks, it is a mass of supply vehicles that need a road, and it’s autumn with its mud rivers instead of highways. Therefore, the Germans could not simply send their rear columns around the cadet redoubts, which means that even though they had a bridgehead and intercepted the highway in the rear of the cadets, the Germans had not yet approached their goal. This meant that it was still necessary to take Ilyinskoye by skiing instead of washing it.

The ever-increasing forces of German motorized infantry were diligently attacking the flank of the strong point. In the rain and mud there was a desperate battle in the villages, but it was not possible to break through the defenses with an infantry assault, and then Knobelsdorff came up with the idea of ​​​​attacking Ilyinskoye not from the west, but from the east - with tanks supported by infantry. 15 combat vehicles, mainly Czech, were supposed to attack LTvz.38 "Prague".

Performance characteristics of LTvz.38

Combat weight
Dimensions:
	4600 mm
	2120 mm
	2400 mm
Crew	4 people
Armament	1 x 37 mm cannon 2 x 7.92 mm machine guns
Ammunition	72 shells 2400 rounds
Reservations:
forehead of the body
forehead of the tower
engine's type	carburetor "Prague"
Maximum power	125 hp
Maximum speed
Power reserve	250 km

Off-road: 160km

Engine: Praga EPA/6 cylinders/125hp

They had to advance straight along the highway, since trying to get out of the way was tantamount to jumping into impassable mud. Advancing along the highway, the tanks were supported by a battalion of infantrymen. The attack was scheduled for October 16 (according to other sources, 13).

Knobelsdorff's plan was quite reasonable, and this was its main advantage. And the main drawback was that he flew head over heels.

Ambush!

The cadet commanders had an insufficient amount of artillery, and all of it was collected in the depths of the defense and camouflaged in the forest as a reserve. The German detachment, not knowing this, drove straight into the trap in a neat column.

The Wehrmacht tankers tried to cheat and hoisted a red flag on the lead vehicle. At first, the observers of the cadets relaxed when they saw the familiar banner, but soon the silhouettes emerging through the autumn gloom left no doubt: the Germans were coming from the east! However, they had no idea that they were going directly to the positions of the Russian artillery reserve. For which they immediately paid.

The conditions for shooting were ideal. The distance is no more than two hundred meters - for large-caliber anti-aircraft guns and light "forty-fives" - this is pistol range. The Germans were unable to leave the road, and did not notice the gun positions until the moment when heavy aimed fire fell on the tanks on the flank. Anti-aircraft guns were a dangerous enemy for heavier vehicles, and light Czech tanks were literally destroyed by their heavy shells.

The German tank crews were good soldiers and were not going to allow themselves to be destroyed just like that. They returned fire, knocked out one of the cannons, but they had no chance on the narrow road. "Pragues" burst into flames under a hail of shells one after another. Of the 15 tanks, only one managed to retreat. As a kind of compensation for him soviet soldiers chalked up at least two armored personnel carriers of the motorized infantry following the tanks. Discouraged by the spectacle of this beating, the Wehrmacht infantrymen were thrown off the highway into the forest.

The calculation of Yuri Dobrynin turned out to be the most effective. This cadet and his comrades burned six of the German tanks participating in the battle.

A German signalman who participated in this battle wrote:

The lead tank burns with a bright flame, the turret hatch opens, from which the crew rushes into the crater. The danger is that our advance has stopped. Tanks are parked on the highway, and these are perfect targets for Russian anti-aircraft guns, which shoot more accurately.

85-mm anti-aircraft gun 52-K

Characteristics and properties of ammunition

• Loading: unitary
• Ammunition range:
  • Anti-aircraft fragmentation grenade with a remote fuse T-5, TM-30, VM-30: 53-UO-365.
  • Anti-aircraft fragmentation grenade with remote fuse VM-2: 53-UO-365,
  • Anti-aircraft fragmentation grenade with adapter head and fuse KTM-1: 53-UO-365
  • Armor-piercing tracer caliber projectile 53-UBR-365
  • Armor-piercing tracer pointed-head caliber projectile 53-UBR-365K
  • Armor-piercing tracer sub-caliber projectile 53-UBR-365P
• Height reach, m: 10,230
• Muzzle velocity of the projectile, m/s
  • Anti-aircraft fragmentation grenade with T-5: 800
  • Solid body fragmentation grenade: 793
  • Armor-piercing sub-caliber reel: 1050
  • Armor-piercing caliber sharp-headed: 800
• Projectile weight, kg
  • Armor-piercing caliber: 9.2
  • Armor-piercing sabot: 4.99
  • Fragmentation: 9.2-9.43
  • Anti-aircraft fragmentation grenade: 9.24-9.54
• Armor penetration of a caliber projectile, mm
  • The meeting angle relative to the tangent plane to the armor is 60 degrees
    • Distance 100 m: 100
    • Distance 500 m: 90
    • Distance 1000 m: 85
  • Normal to armor
    • Distance 100 m: 120
    • Distance 500 m: 110
    • Distance 1000 m: 100

The shells hiss as they pass over the highway. Before we had time to recover from the first shock, another tank was knocked out. The crew also abandons him. Two more tanks were then knocked out. We watch in horror the burning tanks and hear the Russian “hurray!”, although we do not see the enemy. Our ammunition is running low. Half an hour later we are seized with panic. There are six destroyed tanks, and the cannons are still firing. What should we do? Back? Then we come under machine-gun fire. Forward? Who knows how many enemy forces are in the village, and we are running out of ammunition. The soldiers rush to occupy the anti-tank ditch. Here, under the cover of the fir trees, stands the 7th tank, which calls the first group of tanks from Ilyinsky to help. Soon this tank gets hit and catches fire.

Tactical and technical characteristics of the 45 mm gun of the 1937 model:
Caliber - 45 mm;
Weight in combat position - 560 kg;
Weight in stowed position: 1200 kg;
Initial projectile speed - 760 m/s;
Vertical aiming angle - from -8° to 25°;
Horizontal aiming angle - 60°;
Rate of fire - 15-20 rounds per minute;
Maximum firing range - 4400 m;
Maximum direct shot range - 850 m;
Armor penetration according to standards - 28-40 mm (at ranges of 500 and 1000 m);
The weight of the armor-piercing projectile is 1430 g.

The beating of the convoy on the highway was an impressive episode in the fate of the 19th Panzer Division. In an offensive situation, when damaged vehicles can usually be towed to the rear and repaired, a one-time irretrievable loss of 14 tanks at once is very serious. Moreover, this happened during the attack on Moscow, when every piece of equipment counted. The broken column was photographed a lot; later the picture of the defeat on the highway near Ilyinsky remained in the history of the 19th division.

Miracles do not happen, and in the coming days, taking advantage of total fire superiority, the Germans were still able to overcome the resistance of the cadets with brute force. On October 16, the Ilyinsky line fell. The general retreat to the next position was covered by a bunker on the highway near the ruins of the village of Sergeevka with a light anti-tank gun inside.

Attempts to break the spirit of Soviet cadets with the help of propaganda leaflets failed. The “Red Junkers” were called upon to surrender, to break their will with a false message that the Warsaw Highway had been captured almost to Moscow, and that the capital of the USSR would be captured in a day or two. But no one gave up!

Soviet youth fought to the death, withstanding artillery and air strikes. Strength was dwindling, ammunition was running out, and by October 16, only 5 guns remained in service. It was on this day, after a powerful fire strike along the entire defensive front, that the Wehrmacht was able to capture the defensive lines in the Ilyinsky sector, and then only after almost all the cadets who defended here had died.

Until the evening, he delayed the enemy's advance with a pillbox on the highway near the village of Sergeevka, it was commanded by the commander of the 4th battery, Lieutenant Afanasy Ivanovich Aleshkin. The crew of the 45-mm cannon knocked out several enemy combat vehicles.

On October 17, the detachment's command post was moved to Lukyanovo. For another 2 days, the cadets defended Lukyanovo and Kudinovo. On October 19, the fighters defending Kudinovo were encircled, but they managed to break out of it.

On the same day, the cadets received an order to withdraw. On October 20, the few surviving cadets of the Podolsk consolidated detachment began to withdraw to reunite with the troops who were occupying defenses on the Nara River.

In this fierce battle Podolsky combined detachment lost approximately 2,500 cadets, while the enemy lost about 5 thousand people and up to 100 tanks were destroyed and knocked out. They completed their task - the enemy was detained, time was won.

Lieutenant Aleshkin.

The Germans called his pillbox the “living pillbox.” The fact is that Aleshkin managed to camouflage his pillbox so well that the Germans at first did not understand where they were being shot at from, and then, when they had already dug up the ground with large-caliber mortars, the sides of the reinforced concrete pillbox were exposed. There were no armored doors or armored shields then; any shell that exploded nearby constantly wounded our heroes, our boys. But Aleshkin chose a different tactic: at the moment when the Germans, having discovered his pillbox, rolled out anti-aircraft weapons and fired at the pillbox with direct fire, the Aleshkinites took their cannon, rolled it out to a reserve position and waited for the frontal shelling to end. The Germans saw with their own eyes that shells were exploding inside the bunker, well, nothing alive could remain there, and they calmly, waddled, went on the assault, they believed that all the cadets had been destroyed, and what could have remained alive after this crushing fire. But at some point the pillbox came to life and started again! shoot: the guys rolled a cannon into a broken pillbox and again opened fire on enemy soldiers and tanks. The Germans were dumbfounded!

Unfortunately, the Germans had extensive experience in breaking through fortifications: despite several successful shots from the bunker, they managed to bring the bunker to the rear assault group, which blew him up.

The cadets received the order to withdraw on October 18. During the retreat, they were surrounded and had to break out. Later, the survivors were returned to finish their studies. They won precious two weeks for the army, which allowed them to form a continuous front along the Nara. The tank column destroyed on the highway remained on the road and in the ditches around it - the wrecked vehicles could not be restored.

Podolsk cadets truly deserve to remain in the memory of grateful descendants. Inferior to the enemy in all basic means of combat, having pitiful protection in the form of a thin chain of unfinished bunkers, they managed to do what was required of them and dealt the most serious slap in the face of a tank division by the standards of 1941. Among the people who put unlucky conquerors in trouble, the combined detachment of Podolsk schools occupies one of the places of honor.

Podolsk. Monument to cadets

Memorial "Ilyinsky Frontier"

With. Ilyinskoe. Monument to cadets

With. Kudinovo. Monument to cadets

With. Kudinovo. Mass grave

There is no need for phrases about valor and courage.
Words are just that, words.
We stood here. And not a step back.
We are lying here. But Moscow is worth it.
Vladimir Karpenko

With. Ilyinskoe. Meeting of battle veterans at the Ilyinsky Rubezh

On October 6, 1941, on the outskirts of the capital, Podolsk cadets took on their first battle with the Nazis.

"Typhoon"

In the terrible autumn of 1941, when the Nazis were rushing to Moscow, everyone who could hold a weapon stood up to defend the capital. They were waiting for some heroes eternal glory and the memory of descendants, others - obscurity.

A journalist who happened to be nearby managed to describe someone’s feat, and the whole country learned about it. Most of the heroes remained in the shadows, hiding behind the term “mass heroism of the defenders of Moscow.”

For three and a half thousand almost boys who took part in the main battle of their lives in October 1941, there is only one left common name- “Podolsk cadets.”

On September 30, 1941, the German command launched Operation Typhoon. The Nazis hoped to finally defeat the Soviet forces in the Moscow direction and advance to the Soviet capital, putting an end to the blitzkrieg.

Guderian's tank group completed the encirclement Soviet troops near Vyazma, at the same time entering the highway to Moscow, passing through Yukhnov, Ilyinskoye and Maloyaroslavets.

The 57th German motorized corps, consisting of 200 tanks and 20,000 soldiers and officers, was marching towards the capital.

Ivan Semyonovich Strelbitsky, Guards Major General of Artillery Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Enemy at the gate

Since mid-summer, construction has been underway on the Maloyaroslavets fortified area, which was planned to be completed by the end of November. By the beginning of October, they managed to build about 30 artillery and infantry pillboxes, which were not yet fully equipped. Trenches and communication passages were also dug. However, there were no Soviet troops in the fortification area.

On the morning of October 5, 1941, shocking information arrived in Moscow - the Germans had taken Yukhnov. At first, the General Staff refused to believe this, because just the day before, Wehrmacht units were 150 kilometers away from it!

But everything was confirmed: the advancing enemy troops really ended up in Yukhnov, and they had less than 200 kilometers left to Moscow.

It was a disaster - the Nazis found themselves deep in the rear of the Western and Reserve fronts, where there were no Soviet units.

The most urgent transfer of forces required several days, during which it was necessary to detain the enemy. But by whom?

Boys in greatcoats

In 1939-1940, two military schools were created in Podolsk - artillery and infantry. The training course for junior command officers was designed for three years, but in the summer of 1941 the program was urgently changed to six months.

The 1941 intake consisted of students from civilian universities, as well as boys whose school graduation took place on the very day the war began.

The head of the Podolsk Artillery School, Ivan Strelbitsky, recalled: “There were quite a few among them who had never shaved, never worked, never traveled anywhere without their dad and mom.”

Classes for new cadets began in September. And on the evening of October 5, the “Combat Alert!” signal sounded in the schools.

Jr command staff- that link without which the army cannot exist. It is possible to use cadets, future officers, as simple infantry only out of complete despair and hopelessness. But there was no other way out.

Detain at any cost!

From the cadets of the two schools, they formed a combined regiment of 3,500 people, which was given the order to occupy the Ilyinsky line (the same unfinished Maloyaroslavets fortified area) and at any cost detain the enemy for 5-7 days, until the reserves arrived.

Cartridges, grenades, rations for three days, rifles - that’s all the cadets’ equipment. The artillerymen advanced with their own training guns, even the cannons of the times went into action Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878.

The advanced detachment of cadets, who had requisitioned vehicles from enterprises in Podolsk, reached almost Yukhnov, which had already been occupied by the Germans. The cadets took their first battle on the evening of October 6 on the eastern bank of the Ugra, together with a battalion of paratroopers.

After five days of fighting, having spent almost all the ammunition, the advance detachment retreated to the Ilyinsky lines, where the main forces of the cadets were already occupying positions.

No more than a third of the cadets remained from the advance detachment, but together with the paratroopers they destroyed up to 20 tanks, about 10 armored cars, and disabled several hundred Nazis.

Captivity pass

At the Ilyinsky line, the cadets installed guns in pillboxes, although those, as already mentioned, were not only unfinished, but also practically uncamouflaged.

On October 11, the Germans began to storm the Ilyinsky line. The enemy actively used aviation and artillery, after which he went on the attack. However, all attempts to break through on October 11 were repulsed by the cadets. The situation repeated itself the next day.

On October 13, a detachment of 15 German tanks with troops was able to break through to the rear of the cadets. The Nazis relied on cunning by attaching red flags to their tanks. But their ruse was discovered, and the cadet reserve that advanced to meet them in a fierce battle defeated the enemy who had broken through.

A participant from the German side recalled those battles as follows: “These positions were defended by Mongolian and Siberian divisions. These people did not surrender because they were told that the Germans would first cut off their ears and then shoot them.”

However, the Germans knew who they were really fighting. From planes over the positions of the cadets, the Germans scattered leaflets: “Valiant red cadets! You fought bravely, but now your resistance has lost its meaning. The Warsaw highway is ours almost all the way to Moscow. In a day or two we will enter it. You are real soldiers. We respect your heroism. Come over to our side. With us you will receive a friendly welcome, delicious food and warm clothes. This leaflet will serve as your pass."

They fought to the end

But 17-18 year old boys fought to the death. By October 16, after daily fighting, the cadets had only five guns left. The enemy launched a new massive assault.

The name of the battery commander, Lieutenant, has been preserved in history Afanasia Aleshkina. He and the fighters acted cunningly. At that moment, when the Nazis began to shoot at his pillbox with guns, Aleshkin and his subordinates rolled out the gun to a reserve position.

As soon as the fire died down and the German infantry went on the attack, the gun returned to its previous position and again mowed down the enemy’s ranks.

But on the evening of October 16, the Nazis surrounded the pillbox, and as darkness fell, they threw grenades at its defenders.

By the morning of October 17, the main positions of the Ilyinsky lines were captured by the Germans. The surviving cadets retreated to the village of Lukyanovo, where the command post moved. They defended for another two days settlements Lukyanovo and Kudinovo.

The enemy managed to bypass the positions of the cadets, but they continued to shoot the road to Maloyaroslavets, which is why the Germans were deprived of the opportunity to transfer ammunition and reinforcements to their advanced units.

Former cadets at the opening of the monument in Ilyinsky. May 8, 1975. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

“We earned our Victory honestly...”

On October 19, the Germans surrounded the cadets in the Kudinovo area, but they managed to escape. In the evening of the same day, the command received an order for the combined regiment of cadets to retreat to the line of the Nara River to join the main forces.

On October 25, the surviving cadets were taken to the rear. They were given an order to go to the city of Ivanovo to complete their training.

According to some sources, about 2,500 cadets remained forever at the Ilyinsky borders. According to others, only every tenth of the 3,500 soldiers of the combined regiment survived.

But the meeting with the “red cadets” also cost the Germans, who lost about 100 tanks and up to 5,000 soldiers and officers in these battles.

Podolsk cadets, at the cost of their lives, won the time necessary to consolidate units on the new line of defense. The German offensive stalled. The Nazis were unable to enter Moscow.

In 1985 the film was released Yuri Ozerov“Battle for Moscow”, part of which was the history of the feat of Podolsk cadets. For this movie Alexandra Pakhmutov a and Nikolay Dobronravov wrote the song “You are my hope, you are my joy,” which contains the following lines:

We earned our Victory honestly,
Devoted to holy blood kinship.
In every new house, in every new song
Remember those who went to the battle for Moscow!
Gray overcoats. Russian talents.
The blue glow of incorruptible eyes.
On the snowy plains, young cadets...
Immortality has begun. Life ended.