It was formed in the city from miners of the Voroshilovgrad region and volunteers.
On September 11, 1941, the division, formed from miners of the Voroshilovgrad region, took the oath and went to the front to defend their homeland from the brown plague and fulfilled their duty, reaching Berlin.
In the menacing days of the autumn of 1941, when the fascist hordes were rushing to Moscow, Leningrad, and were approaching the Donbass, in Red Banner Voroshilovgrad, by order of the Supreme High Command, the formation of the 395th Infantry Division began. Its backbone was made up of miners from Kadievka, Lisichansk, Krasny Luch, Antratsit, Rovenkov, Sverdlovsk and other cities in the region. The flower of the Donbass miners brought into the ranks of the mining regiments the fighting traditions of the heroes of the defense of Lugansk during the civil war, the traditions of the heroes of the Sharp Mogila. By the end of its formation, the division numbered 1212 communists and 450 Komsomol members in its ranks.
Despite the fact that the unit was not yet fully equipped with weapons, there was a lack of cavalry and vehicles, combat training was already underway during the formation of the regiments. On the alleys of the Gorky Park, yesterday's miners were given training in political training, the study of the material part of weapons, and practice elements of drill training.
On September 11, the personnel took the Military Oath. A few days after taking the Military Oath, the mining regiments were transferred from Voroshilovgrad to Zhdanov (Mariupol) on combat alert and received a combat mission: to ensure a way out of the encirclement of the troops of the Ninth and Eighteenth Armies, and at the same time cover the city.
The miner regiments did what seemed impossible, incredible in the fall of 1941. They were the first on the Southern Front to stop the enemy on the soil of Donbass.
Since August 1941, Major General Anatoly Yosifovich Petrakovsky (1901-1969) commanded the 395th Miner Rifle Division formed in Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk), which, under his command, together with other military units, successfully restrained the advance of fascist troops along the river. Mius from October 1941 to July 1942. During this period, the division trained 145 snipers, whose combat accounts included 3,623 exterminated and incapacitated fascists.
During the period of defense on the Mius River from January 1 to July 17, 1942, the divisional party commission accepted 2,589 soldiers into the ranks of the party, of which 731 were party members. Fulfilling the order of the Supreme High Command to create an impregnable defense, units of the division tirelessly improved the line they occupied. The division was equipped with three defensive lines, anti-tank defense, which was recognized as one of the best in the army.
The long days and nights of the battle for the Caucasus will remain pages of the unfading glory of the mining regiments in the annals of the Great Patriotic War. It was then that the famous German order was born: “Sailors and miners should not be taken prisoner, they should be destroyed on the spot.”
On January 19, 1943, the rifle regiments of the miner's division, overcoming the stubborn resistance of the enemy, broke through his defenses and went forward. Under the attacks of our units, the enemy was forced to leave one line after another, abandoning military equipment and weapons. Kutaisskaya, Klyuchevaya, Saratovskaya, Baku, the village of Kovalenko, Shabanokhabl. These and many other villages and villages of Kuban will not forget their liberators, who shed blood in the surrounding fields, on the village streets and alleys, when fierce battles flared up.
“ Tamanskaya.” And 2 months later Moscow saluted the heroes of the battles for the liberation of Right Bank Ukraine, where the division was urgently transferred from the Taman Peninsula.
Among other units and formations that repeatedly distinguished themselves in battles against the Nazi invaders, the division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. And 5 days later, for the capture of the city of Berdichev, among other units and formations, the division was awarded another military order and became known as: 395 1st Taman Red Banner Order of Suvorov II degree miner's rifle division.
Every year the Motherland salutes the mining regiments for courage and bravery. Two military orders and the honorary name Tamanskaya were won by the division that carried the scarlet banner through the fire of battle from the Caucasus mountains to Berlin.
For the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command and the courage and courage shown in this case, 14,217 soldiers of the division were awarded orders and medals.

395 RIFLE DIVISION

714, 723 and 726 rifle regiments,
968th artillery regiment,
29th separate anti-tank fighter division (from January 15, 1942),
451 anti-aircraft artillery battery (692 separate anti-aircraft artillery division) - until May 18, 1943,
576th mortar division (until 5.11.42),
467 reconnaissance company,
686 engineer battalion,
856 separate communications battalion (1441 separate communications company),
490th medical battalion,
483 separate chemical defense company,
306th motor transport company,
259 field bakery,
829 divisional veterinary hospital,
1416 field postal station,
763 field cash desk of the State Bank.

We were always convinced that Donbass was of paramount importance for the Germans. That colossal forces were deployed to capture it. That the offensive on the southern flank in the fall of 41 was primarily aimed at capturing the coal and metallurgical industries. On this occasion, they are very fond of quoting the memoirs of Erich von Manstein from the book “Lost Victories”: “Already in 1941, Donbass played a significant role in Hitler’s operational plans. He believed that the outcome of the war would depend on the capture of this territory... On the one hand, Hitler argued that without the coal reserves of the area we would not be able to withstand the war economically. On the other hand, in his opinion, the loss of this coal by the Soviets would be a decisive blow to their strategy... The loss of this coal would sooner or later paralyze the production of tanks and ammunition in the Soviet Union.”

However, a thoughtful analysis of the events that took place casts doubt on the sincerity of the fascist military leader. Apparently, Donbass was not so important for Hitler if, after encircling the main forces of the Southern Front, Kleist’s 1st Tank Army was in no hurry to reach the “coveted” spaces. For some reason, all of its striking power - the motorized SS brigade "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler", the 13th, 14th, and 16th tank divisions - are rushing along the coast of the Azov Sea to the east, aiming for the foothills of the Caucasus. And for operations on the territory of Donbass, much less combat-ready units were assigned - the Italian Expeditionary Force, the Slovak Mobile Division, the 49th Mountain Rifle Corps, and - an unexpected exception from this list - the SS Viking Division. The total number of divisions reaches seven, but they operated on a fairly wide front, ensuring interaction between the left flank of Kleist’s strike group and the 17th Field Army.

The commander of the 1st Panzer Group von Kleist meets the commanders of the Italian and Slovak units assigned to him

The Italian Expeditionary Force (abbreviated CSIR), under the command of General Giovanni Messe, included three divisions. 52nd division "Torino", 9th division "Posubio Roma", and 3rd division named after "Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta" (in Russian and Ukrainian historiography it is better known as "Celere", which means "swift, agile")

The Torino and Posubio divisions were essentially two-regiment infantry divisions. To please Mussolini, they were proudly called “motor transportable”, although in reality the transport was barely enough for the needs of one. Italian strategists assumed that while one division would take part in the battle, the second would maneuver on the released transport. Unfortunately, on German maps, the Italian “autotransportable” divisions had a similar designation to the “motorized” ones, and German strategists assigned them tasks as for the motorized ones. It is clear that the Italians could not fulfill them, which created additional difficulties for the Wehrmacht and earned them notoriety. The Italians were considered worthless soldiers, and were assigned to operate in secondary sectors of the front.

The 3rd Mobile Division "Celeri" (commanded by Brigadier General Mario Marazzani) was, in fact, the only combat-ready division of the Italians. It included two cavalry regiments - "Savoy Cavalry" and "Navarre", the 3rd regiment of Bersaglieri (shooters who used motorcycles and bicycles for movement), an artillery regiment and the only tank formation in the entire expeditionary force, "San Giorgio", armed with tankettes.

The young Slovak state, formed as a result of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, sends an expeditionary army group of 45,000 people to the Eastern Front on June 26. Almost immediately, in order to withstand the high tempo of the German offensive, all motorized units of the army group had to be consolidated into a special mobile brigade under the command of Rudolf Pilfozek. This brigade, among other things, included a tank battalion armed with Czech-made LT-35, LT-38 and LT-40 tanks.
Pilfozek's brigade advanced with the 17th Field Army from Lvov to Kyiv, while the remaining Slovak units were used for rear service. In August, another reorganization of the army group takes place. On the basis of the mobile brigade, which was pretty battered in battle, the 1st mobile, “rychla” (pronounced “rykhla”) division was created, and in the rear - the 2nd security division.

The 1st Mobile Division, under the command of Gustav Malar, became part of Kleist's 1st Panzer Group on October 2 and took part in the offensive towards the Donbass. At this point, it has two infantry regiments, a motorized artillery regiment, a company of tanks and a platoon of armored vehicles.

The German command rightly believed that the Slovaks could not be trusted in the war against the Slavic brothers. There were cases when Slovak units dismissed Red Army soldiers who had surrendered to their homes, and later they themselves began to go over to the side of the Red Army. Therefore, they tried to use the “Loose” division in secondary sectors of the front, together with reliable units. During the attack on Stalino, its armored units supported the German 49th Mountain Corps, although the main forces of the division did not move north of Volnovakha.

The 49th Mountain Corps (commanded by General of the Mountain Troops Ludwig Kübler) consisted of the 1st and 4th Mountain Divisions, and it ended up in the Donbass by pure chance.

German mountain rifle units were formed from professional Bavarian and Austrian mountaineers who had been trained to conduct combat operations in the mountains, and had specialized equipment and weapons. On flat terrain, these troops lost their advantage, turning into ordinary light infantry units. Therefore, until October, the 49th Mountain Rifle Corps was planned to be used as part of the 11th Field Army to capture Crimea. And only the Soviet counteroffensive near Melitopol, with the subsequent encirclement of the 9th and 18th armies, forced the German command to reconsider their plans. In the light of the resulting breakthrough, the Caucasus Mountains seemed no further than the Crimean Mountains. Kübler's wards are transferred to Kleist's 1st Panzer Army, and, wanting to protect them, they are sent to capture the capital of Donbass.

Alpine mountain riflemen and Italian Bersaglieri against the backdrop of a metallurgical plant in the city of Stalino

When you hear the phrase “SS Division “Viking””, the image of a true Aryan in a black and white uniform, sitting astride a tank, immediately appears before your eyes. It is so established that even some historians manage to forget that in 1941 there were no tanks in the division, nor, indeed, black SS uniforms. The Vikings came to Donbass as an ordinary motorized division - on armored personnel carriers and motorcycles.

The second common myth claims that the Wafen-SS troops were the elite of the German army, had the best weapons and were supplied first. It is also not true. The SS troops in the Wehrmacht in 1941 were a forced concession to Hitler, an exception to the rule. German generals, largely hereditary military men, perceived these racially pure troops as a direct threat to their prerogative. Their supply and armament was carried out on a residual basis, and a special directive from Hitler was required to stop such discrediting. And the Viking soldiers, in addition, were not entirely Germans, because... this division was formed at the expense of Volksdeutsche from countries occupied by Germany.

On October 11, the SS Viking division begins an offensive from Mariupol in the general direction of Stalino, to secure the left flank of the Kleist strike group, which the troops of the 9th Army are constantly trying to counterattack. But having advanced just north of Volnovakha, the Vikings were forced to stop due to the almost complete lack of fuel.

The official Soviet version of the battle for Stalino said that the city was captured only by concentrating more than a hundred tanks, and this version began to be created back in 1941, when an article in Komsomolskaya Pravda on November 1 wrote: “The fascist command sent its best units to the Stalino area. Five divisions operated here, including one motorized and 13 tank division from the Kleist group. Only by concentrating over a hundred additional tanks and sending up aircraft, the enemy managed to capture the city of Stalino.”

Indeed, if you read the combat documents of the Southern Front, then until October 22, the Soviet command assumed that one tank division and two motorized ones would attack Stalino. In the intelligence report of the headquarters of the Southern Front No. 169, dated October 21, 1941, you can read the following: "Stalin's direction. In the Kurakovka, (claim) Marinka sector, units of the 3rd Italian mobile division “Celere” operate. At the Maryinka site, St. Units of the 1st and 4th German Civil Defense Division, up to one TD (tank division) (presumably 13th TD) and one motorized division (motorized division) of unknown numbering, are operating rapidly. At the junction of the armies on the site (claim) Art. Beshevo, Uspenskoye is operating, presumably, SS Viking MD. However, two days later, in the combat report of the Southern Front headquarters No. 0080/op, the mythical tank and motorized divisions disappear: “In the Stalin-Makeevsky direction, the pr-k has up to 4-5 infantry divisions (infantry divisions), of which up to three are Italian. The pr-ka’s actions here are of a constraining nature.”

One can, of course, assume that the 13th Panzer Division, after the capture of Stalino, was transferred to another section of the front, but according to German data, the 13th Panzer Division was never near Stalino, nor, indeed, any other from the 1st Tank Army. On October 13, the 13th Panzer Division reached Mius, on October 17 it captured the bridgehead on Sambek, and on October 20, in close cooperation with the 14th Panzer Division and the Leibstandarte brigade, it launched an attack on Rostov. On October 23, she was subjected to a Soviet counterattack, which refuted intelligence reports about her intended location.

Slovak LT-35 tanks on the march in the fall of 1941

However, it cannot be said that there were no tanks near Donetsk at all. They were. The Italians had 61 tanks, and the Slovak “Ryšla” division by that time had 12 tanks. The total number looks impressive, but you should not have any illusions about it.

Of the vehicles concentrated near Stalino, the ones that most resembled tanks were the Czech LT-35 and LT-38, which were in service with the Slovaks. These were light tanks, equipped with a 37 mm cannon, and protected by riveted bulletproof armor. For our 45-mm anti-tank guns, they did not pose any problems, as was proven by the soldiers of the 38th Cavalry Division against whom they were used.

What the descendants of the Romans brought with them from sunny Italy could only be called tanks by impulsive Italians. By October, the 3rd group of light tanks “San Giorgio” was armed with 55 L3/33 tankettes and 6 Fiat L6/40 tanks.

The L3/33 wedges were developed in 1933 and by the beginning of World War II they were mercilessly outdated. Having tiny dimensions, thin armor (15 mm frontal armor) and armament from twin 6.5 mm machine guns, they were, in fact, a mobile machine gun nest. At the same time, they were easily destroyed by a high-explosive shell and did not require special anti-tank weapons. But the most effective weapon against the Italian “armored monsters” turned out to be the Donbass weather. The heavy rains of the autumn of 1941 led to the collapse of all Italian tanks - they were stuck tightly in the mud. Light tanks Fiat L6/40, at the beginning of the battles for Donbass, had just begun to arrive in the expeditionary force and did not participate in real battles until 1942.

Italian “armored monster” L3/33 next to a motorcycle

So, by telling us about the countless number of tanks during the capture of the city of Stalino, Soviet historians are somewhat sinning against the truth, trying to justify themselves in the eyes of their descendants for the inglorious loss of Donbass. No more.

If you believe the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda", then “The fascist command threw its best units into the Stalino area”. We have already looked at what they were, now it’s time to look at those against whom they acted, at the defenders of Donbass.

It is officially believed that Donbass was defended by four armies. In the south - the 9th Army under the command of Major General F.M. Kharitonov. In the southwest - the 18th Army under the command of Major General V.Ya. Kolpakchi. In the north-west - the 12th Army under the command of Major General I.V. Galanin, (until October 16, 1941, then Major General K.A. Koroteev). In the north of the region, the defense was held by the 6th Army of the Southwestern Front. But at the same time, the shortest path to the heart of the coal region was defended by the bloodless 18th Army. In fact, it was not even an army, but a rifle corps consisting of 3 divisions. It was against her that the “best” fascist units acted.

If you believe the postulate about the fanatical desire of the Germans to seize the Donetsk coal, then an interesting picture emerges. The Germans are trying to take control of Donbass by selecting the least combat-ready units for this, and the Red Army is trying to defend it with the least combat-ready army.

And there was no malice or incompetence of the generals, as military historian Yu.I. Mukhin believes. It’s just that the Soviet front collapsed in several places at the same time, and Headquarters did not have the reserves to patch up all the holes. And what is Donbass, when the fate of Moscow was being decided? It was Hitler who thought that with the loss of Donbass we would have a fuel famine and the factories would stop. Comrade Stalin knew very well that a second line of industrial defense had already been created in Siberia, and the loss of Ukrainian steel and coal would be compensated.

But neither in August nor in September no one was going to surrender Donbass. Hundreds of thousands of our fellow countrymen worked to create powerful defense lines running in the meridian direction from the Samara River to the Sea of ​​Azov. Along the Dnieper, a natural defensive line, stood the well-armed, full-blooded armies of the Southern Front. In the rear, factories and factories were working hard, supplying the front with tons of ammunition, a lot of weapons and equipment. And all these efforts suddenly turned out to be in vain. The Germans crossed the Dnieper, struck bypassing the defensive lines, and closed in behind the armies of the Southern Front.

For four days, from October 8 to October 12, the Stalin region remained virtually defenseless. The three unfired divisions of the 10th Reserve Army (383rd, 395th and 38th Cavalry) were unlikely to offer any serious resistance on a front of 150 km, but the Germans could not develop their offensive, shackled by the encircled Soviet troops. So these days the defense of Donbass was carried out not along the outer ring of encirclement, but along the inner one.

By October 13, the 18th Army received at its disposal three divisions of the Reserve Front, the Kolosov group, the 30th NKVD regiment, reorganized the troops that had emerged from the encirclement, and occupied the allocated defense line.

The 383rd and 395th rifle divisions, formed in accordance with GKO decree No. 459 of August 11, had the same numerical strength, approximately the same weapons, both were formed from Donbass miners, and both were commanded by Heroes of the Soviet Union - Colonels Konstantin Provalov and Ivan Petrakovsky, who, by the way, simultaneously graduated from the Frunze Military Academy.

The only difference was that the soldiers of the 395th division received baptism of fire five days earlier, and not from the Italians, like Provalov’s wards, but from the Germans. On October 8, on the outskirts of Mariupol, two rifle regiments, the 726th and 714th, were unable to stop the German reconnaissance battalion of the Leibstandarte SS motorized brigade, as a result of which the city was captured. The lack of anti-tank artillery had an effect.

A few days later, on October 13, units of the 395th Miner Rifle Division could not withstand the attack of the SS Viking division and the city of Volnovakha, a large railway junction, was captured. This time it was no longer a matter of guns - the Germans did not have tanks in this sector. It just turned out that the title “miner” in itself does not in any way affect the combat effectiveness of a military unit, and is not capable of improving combat training.


Soviet counterattack. Donbass, October 1941.
The soldier running on the right is wearing an outdated helmet from the 1938 model.

Another brainchild of the 10th Reserve Army was the 38th Cavalry Division of General N.Ya. Kirichenko, formed in the Persianovsky camps near Novocherkassk. In terms of its numerical strength, it was three times smaller than the rifle division (3,277 people in total), but it had an armored squadron of 10 BA-6 and BA-10 armored vehicles. At that time, these were one of the best armored vehicles in the world, armed with a 45-mm cannon, which could hit any German tank at a distance of 500 meters.

During the defense of the city of Stalino, the 38th Cavalry Division, reinforced by units of the 18th Army that had emerged from encirclement, held the front between two mining divisions, and in its sector the enemy never managed to achieve any success. For its valor, during the defense of Donbass, the division was the first among cavalry divisions to receive the Order of the Red Banner. However, her combat journey was short-lived - in May 1942 she died in encirclement near Kharkov.

After the breakthrough of German troops at Novomoskovsk, the so-called lifesaver became a kind of lifesaver for the Southern Front. group of Colonel Kolosov, commander of the 15th Tank Brigade. It was formed by personal order of the then front commander D. Ryabyshev, from the remnants of the 2nd and 15th tank brigades, the 2nd and 95th border detachments, the 521st anti-tank artillery regiment and the M-13 mortar division. A total of 33 tanks with a dozen vehicles.

Kolosov's group was used to launch counterattacks against the German advanced units, providing at least some stability to the front while the 9th and 18th armies were being restored. On the evening of October 8, Kolosov’s group almost destroyed the headquarters of Kleist himself near the village of Chubarovka, being only a few hours late and destroying the trailing column of headquarters vehicles. On October 13, the actions of Kolosov’s group allowed the troops of the 395th Rifle Division to break away from pursuit and avoid complete destruction.

Among the units that took part in the defense of Stalino, there is one that is very difficult to judge objectively. We are talking about the 30th regiment of operational troops of the NKVD. Some associate the execution of wounded Red Army soldiers with this regiment before the retreat from Rutchenkovo, and claim that the breakthrough to the city of Stalino took place precisely in its sector. Others do not remember any NKVD troops at all, calling them border guards.

Documentary sources also provide very scant information. We can say the following with confidence. The 30th motorized rifle regiment of the operational forces of the NKVD began its formation in the city of Baku immediately after the start of the war. It was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Alekseevich Skrypnikov. The regiment consisted of 950 people, had a tank company, divisional and anti-tank batteries. On October 10, the regiment arrived in the Stalin region and became part of the 9th Army.

During the defense of Stalino, the famous Katyushas were also used, which the Germans called the “Stalinist organ” for the characteristic roar of rockets. On October 10, units of the 2nd Guards Mortar Regiment, which was part of the Vojvodina operational group, managed to escape from the encirclement. The command used them in divisions, on the most threatening sectors of the front.

At the beginning of August 1941, Hitler's troops continued to successfully advance deep into the territory of the Soviet Union. Millions of Soviet people stood shoulder to shoulder, trying to defend their country from the attack of the aggressor. Among them were people of various nationalities, ages and professions. The strategic task of the Soviet leadership during this period was to prevent the Germans from reaching the industrial areas in the east of the Ukrainian SSR, primarily to the Donbass. On August 18, 1941, the State Defense Committee decided (resolution No. 506c of August 18, 1941) to form the 383rd Infantry Division, which was entrusted with the task of defending Donbass (by the time of the Victory in 1945 it was called the “383rd Feodosiysk -Brandenburg Red Banner Order of Suvorov 2nd class rifle division").

Initially, the division began to be staffed with Donetsk miners mobilized for military service. Miners, as you know, have always been a risky, ardent and combat-ready people. Therefore, as expected, the division was destined to become one of the elite formations of the Red Army. It was precisely because at first it was staffed primarily by miners that the 383rd Infantry Division received the popular name “Miner Division”. Under him she entered the Great Patriotic War, becoming famous for the numerous exploits of her soldiers and officers.

First commander

Two days after the signing of the GKO decree on the creation of the 383rd Infantry Division, Colonel Konstantin Provalov, Hero of the Soviet Union and an experienced commander, student of the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze. It was to him that the Soviet leadership entrusted great responsibility, appointing him as commander of the newly formed 383rd Infantry Division. Colonel Provalov, despite his thirty-five years of age, had extensive military experience. Konstantin Ivanovich was born on June 11, 1906, in the Irkutsk region, into a simple peasant family. He graduated from the seven-year school and, as a literate guy, became the chairman of the Babushkinsky village council in his native village of Babushkino, Cheremkhovo district. He began his service in the Red Army at the age of 22, in 1928.

Having received training at the regimental school of the 3rd Verkhneudinsk Regiment, Provalov was sent to study at the Irkutsk infantry commander training course, then to the Omsk Infantry School named after. M.V. Frunze, which he graduated from in 1933. In five years, yesterday’s cadet managed to work his way up to the position of regiment commander. In 1938, thirty-two-year-old Provalov commanded the 120th Infantry Regiment as part of the 40th Infantry Division. He took part in the battles near Lake Khasan from July 29 to August 11, 1938. Soldiers under the command of Provalov defeated enemy troops at the Zaozernaya heights. At the same time, the regiment commander himself was wounded twice, but continued to command the unit. For his heroism, on October 25, 1938, Konstantin Ivanovich Provalov was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. The young and talented commander was sent to study at the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze.

It was difficult to think of a better commander for the Miner's Division. Now the matter required recruiting command and rank and file personnel. The Directorate for Command and Command Staff of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR decided to staff the division exclusively with well-trained fighters. It was decided to recruit the command staff exclusively from among the personnel commanders of the Red Army, and all junior personnel - Red Army soldiers, squad commanders, assistant platoon commanders, company foremen - had to not only have experience of service in the Red Army, but also have completed it no more than than three years ago. So that combat skills would not be forgotten, and physical training would still remain at its best. Fortunately, there were always enough such people among Donetsk miners - especially in those years. Yesterday's Red Army soldiers and junior commanders, demobilized from military service, went to work in the mines - at that time, mining work was considered honorable, even romanticized. Well, it was paid well, of course.

The beginning of the battle path

The process of forming the division itself took place in the city of Stalino, as Donetsk was then called. The formation of the division lasted 35 days. The enlisted personnel sent by the military registration and enlistment offices were distinguished by a high degree of training. In addition, the division included six Komsomol special units for the destruction of tanks. Unlike many other units, the Miner's Division did not lack not only trained Red Army soldiers and commanders, but also material and technical support. The fighters were well equipped and there were no shortages of food. The division also became one of the most well-armed formations of the Red Army. Each rifle regiment that was part of it was armed with 54 heavy machine guns (in total there were 162 heavy machine guns in the division). The anti-aircraft division was armed with 12 automatic anti-aircraft guns. The structure of the division at the time of its formation and entry to the front line looked as follows. The division included the headquarters, the 149th, 694th and 696th rifle regiments, and the 690th separate anti-aircraft artillery division.

At the end of September, the formation of the division was completed and on September 30, 1941, it was included in the 18th Army of the Southern Front. Then she moved to combat positions. On the defensive line “Grishino-Solntsevo-Trudovoy” the division took up positions 50 km wide. This happened on October 13, 1941, and already on October 14, 1941, the division entered its first battle. The Red Army soldiers had to fight with units of the 4th Wehrmacht Mountain Rifle Division and the Italian Caesar cavalry division. And immediately, showing high combat readiness, the division’s units in battle completely destroyed the regiment of royal musketeers of the Caesar division. During five days of bloody fighting, while the division held its designated positions, enemy losses amounted to 3,000 troops, which was twice the losses of the Miner's Division, which lost about 1,500 people.

On October 18, 1941, the command ordered the division to be withdrawn from its positions. From October 15 to 22, it was the Red Army soldiers and commanders of the 383rd Division who carried out the defense of Stalino (Donetsk), during which they managed to destroy more than five thousand Nazis, also causing serious damage to the enemy’s weapons. The division met November 1941 on the Mius Front, occupying defensive lines in the area of ​​​​the city of Krasny Luch, and later moved to the Donsk - Bataysk area. It should be noted that the Miner's Division never retreated from occupied positions without orders from the command and, on the whole, was one of the most valiant units of the army in the field. After the fighting on the Don, the division was transferred to the Novorossiysk region, where for almost the entire 1943 it fought bloody battles with Nazi troops, defending the Caucasus. By this time, it was part of the Black Sea group of the Transcaucasian Front.

Divisional Commander Gorbachev. Fighting in Taman and Crimea

In June 1943, Konstantin Provalov, who by that time already held the rank of major general, left the post of division commander - he was soon appointed commander of the 16th Rifle Corps. Colonel V.Ya. became the new division commander. Gorbachev. Veniamin Yakovlevich Gorbachev was no less experienced commander than Provalov. At the time of his appointment as division commander, he was not even thirty years old - he was born on March 24, 1915 in the city of Bogotol in the Tomsk province. That is, he, like the first division commander, was a Siberian. The son of a peasant, he completed nine years of school, then worked as a district procurement inspector. He was accepted into service in the Red Army in 1932, and in 1936 he graduated from the Tomsk Artillery School. Over the course of several years, he went through the path of a platoon commander, a battery commander, and commanded a division. In 1941, after graduating from the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze, was sent to the active army. His first position was as chief of staff of the 119th Infantry Division of the Western Front. When the formation of the 383rd Rifle Division began, Gorbachev, a talented and educated man in military affairs, was appointed commander of a rifle regiment within the division. In 1941-1943. he went through the entire combat path with the division, and in July 1943 he was appointed its commander, replacing Provalov, who was leaving for promotion.

In the battles for the liberation of the Taman Peninsula, the 383rd Division took an active part, for which it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on October 10, 1943). Taman was followed by battles for the liberation of the Crimean Peninsula. On the night of November 7-8, division units began crossing the Kerch Strait under fire from enemy batteries. Units of the division landed in the area of ​​Mayak and Zhukovka, almost immediately engaging in battle with the enemy, capturing and expanding the bridgehead. The beginning of November 1943 became a period of incessant and bloody fighting on the Kerch Peninsula. So, on November 9, Adzhimushkai was taken by two rifle regiments that bypassed the village of Voykova from the northwestern side. On November 11, division units encircled more than a thousand German soldiers and officers. Most of them were destroyed, some were captured, and only a minority managed to escape. On the same day, the liberation of the village of Voykova, begun several days earlier, was completed.

During the assault on the village of Adzhimushkai, senior sergeant Yuri Bykov (1923-1945), who commanded the machine gun crew, replaced the wounded platoon commander and raised the soldiers to attack. Having installed the unit's machine gun on a hill, Bykov managed to destroy 10 Nazi firing points. On November 20, left alone, he destroyed several dozen enemy soldiers with a machine gun, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The feat of the young lieutenant

It was during the fighting on the Kerch Peninsula that the hero of our article, Lieutenant Vladimir Bondarenko, accomplished his feat. When on November 20, 1943, Nazi soldiers approached the Bezymyanny farm, which is now part of the city of Kerch, a unit under the command of Lieutenant Bondarenko entered into battle with superior enemy forces. Although the Red Army managed to defeat the Nazi infantry units, Nazi tanks went into battle. There was a great risk of the Bezymyanny farm being recaptured by the Germans. Moreover, a tank unit of eight tanks was advancing on him. And it was in this critical situation that Lieutenant Bondarenko was the first to remain calm.

Standing in place of the dead crew of the 45-mm gun, Bondarenko himself loaded and aimed the gun. The third shell hit the Nazis' lead tank. The Nazis hesitated, but then made a second attempt to attack Bezymianny. Bondarenko, with the help of his soldiers, rolled a gun out of the trench and opened fire on the Nazis. The first tank was hit, then the second. The following volleys thinned the line of German infantry. As a result of the heroic act of Lieutenant Bondarenko, the Nazi offensive on the Bezymianny farm was stopped. After this battle, the commander of the Separate Primorsky Army, Army General I.E. Petrov nominated Vladimir Bondarenko to the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

At the time of the feat, Vladimir Bondarenko was only 19 years old. Vladimir Pavlovich Bondarenko was born in 1924 in Rostov-on-Don, into an ordinary family of a Soviet employee. Volodya’s childhood was not much different from the childhood of millions of other Soviet boys of that time. He probably also dreamed of bringing benefit to his country, getting a profession needed by society and serving the people and the Soviet state for a given period of time. In the summer of 1941, when the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, Volodya Bondarenko had just finished the ninth grade of high school and went to work at the Rostov shoe factory. Anastas Mikoyan. When the Germans approached Rostov-on-Don, the seventeen-year-old boy was evacuated to Kislovodsk with his mother. However, with all his might he was eager to join the active army. I went to the military registration and enlistment office, but to no avail - they didn’t want to take a seventeen-year-old to the front: he was still young. But in the end, persistence won out - the young man managed to get sent to a military school.

In May 1942, Vladimir Bondarenko became a cadet at the Rostov Artillery School (RAU), or more precisely, an accelerated course, on the basis of which commanders for front-line units were urgently trained. Also in 1942, Bondarenko received the rank of lieutenant and was assigned to the 383rd Infantry Division. For the first time, Bondarenko took part in hostilities near Mozdok and immediately distinguished himself in battle, for which yesterday’s schoolboy was awarded the medal “For Courage.” Then there were battles for Stavropol. Bondarenko also fought in Taman, including as part of a special reconnaissance group, as a very brave and trained officer. Then Bondarenko, who enjoyed the respect of the personnel and command, became the Komsomol organizer of the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the 634th Infantry Regiment. In 1943, he joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

When the division crossed the Kerch Strait, Lieutenant Vladimir Bondarenko was on the first boat and, together with his soldiers, was the first to land on Kerch soil. By the morning, the battalion in which Bondarenko fought was able to gain a foothold on the nearest heights. On November 10, Bondarenko participated in the capture of Adzhimushkay, raising the Red Army soldiers to attack. Vladimir threw grenades at a German machine gun nest, then personally destroyed more than ten German soldiers and captured four prisoners.

Having accomplished his feat, as we wrote above, Bondarenko was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, he did not have the chance to personally receive the Gold Star... On December 20, 1943, Lieutenant Vladimir Bondarenko was seriously wounded in a battle near the village of Bulganak and died on the same day. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to him posthumously - by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, signed on May 16, 1944. Fortunately, the name of Vladimir Pavlovich Bondarenko was not forgotten. The memory of the nineteen-year-old lieutenant is immortalized in Rostov-on-Don - his homeland, as well as in Crimea. The village of Bulganak, where Lieutenant Bondarenko died, was renamed Bondarenkovo ​​(Leninsky district of the Republic of Crimea) in 1948. In Kerch, during the liberation of which a young lieutenant distinguished himself from the Nazi invaders, on Mount Mithridates, an obelisk was erected in memory of the soldiers of the 383rd Infantry Miner Division. The names of heroically deceased Soviet soldiers, including Vladimir Bondarenko, are carved on the obelisk. Also, the 28th secondary school in the city of Kerch bears the name of the hero. The hero is not forgotten in his native Rostov-on-Don - one of the streets in the New Settlement - in the Leninsky district of the city - is named after him. After all, Vladimir Bondarenko worked for some time at the Rostov shoe factory named after Mikoyan, which is located at the beginning of the New Settlement.

The way to Berlin

The further path of the famous 383rd Infantry Division passed through the Crimea. As part of the 16th Rifle Corps, the division liberated Feodosia, for which it received the name Feodosia, after which it participated in the battles for the liberation of Sudak, Alushta, and Yalta. On May 12, 1944, the 383rd Division took part in the last large-scale battle with the Nazis at Cape Chersonese. The division also liberated the hero city of Sevastopol. All three rifle regiments of the 383rd Rifle Division received the name Sevastopol for their valor during the liberation of Sevastopol. 13 soldiers and division commanders were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. One and a half thousand soldiers and commanders were awarded various orders and medals. And this is only for the liberation of Crimea. If we take the Great Patriotic War as a whole, then 33 servicemen in the division received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Three servicemen were awarded three degrees of Order of Glory for their feats of arms. In January 1945, the 383rd Rifle Division became part of the 33rd Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. She fought in Poland and Germany, and took part in the battle for Berlin on May 2, 1945. For its success in the Brandenburg operation, the division received the name Feodosia-Brandenburg.

No less heroically than during the liberation of their native land, the fighters and commanders of the division fought in Eastern Europe and Germany. Here the division, hardened in the battles of the Great Patriotic War, had new heroes. Thus, in April 1945, the commander of the 3rd rifle company of the 691st Sevastopol regiment, Nikolai Ivanovich Merkuryev, especially distinguished himself. A native of the Vologda region, Merkuryev managed to take part in the war with Finland in 1939-1940, and from July 27, 1941 he participated in the Great Patriotic War. After being seriously wounded, he was transferred from a tank unit to a rifle unit, where he commanded a foot reconnaissance platoon as part of the 611th Regiment of the 383rd Infantry Division.

On April 16, twenty-five-year-old Lieutenant Merkuryev, at the head of a company, was the first to rush to storm enemy positions. As a result of his decisive actions, the positions were captured, and fifty Nazis were captured. Next, it was Merkuryev’s company that took the Markendorf point and the Frankfurt-on-Oder-Berlin highway. Merkuryev accomplished a new feat on April 18 - two days after the storming of the trenches, Merkuryev was able to destroy two Nazi machine guns and up to thirty German soldiers using captured Panzer-Faust disposable grenade launchers. On April 24, the lieutenant prevented an enemy counterattack, personally killing about twenty Nazis with a machine gun. On April 27, Merkuryev’s company captured 20 Nazis and killed 15. The next day, 20 were destroyed and 80 Wehrmacht soldiers were captured. At the same time, the company commander himself was wounded, but did not leave the battle. For the totality of these feats, Nikolai Ivanovich Merkuryev was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union on May 31, 1945. He was lucky to return from the front alive and from 1946 to 1972. he continued to serve in the fire inspection authorities. Died in 1981.

The commander of the 383rd Rifle Division, Major General Veniamin Yakovlevich Gorbachev, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated April 6, 1945. After the war, Gorbachev continued to command the division, then the corps. He held the position of first deputy army commander. In 1953 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. He was in the reserve since 1959 and died in 1985.

The first commander of the Miner's Division, Konstantin Ivanovich Provalov, commanded the 16th Rifle Corps, then the 113th and 36th Corps. He took part in battles in East Prussia, liberating Prague and Berlin. He finished the war with the rank of Colonel General. After the war, having studied at the Military Academy of the General Staff, he held command posts. In 1962-1969 commanded the Southern Group of Soviet Forces. Died in 1981.

The legendary 383rd Rifle Division made a huge contribution to the great cause of victory over the Nazi aggressors. Thousands of soldiers and officers of the division died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, others managed to return from the front alive. But they all became a clear example of courage and military duty for all subsequent generations. The memory of the fighters of the legendary Shakhtarskaya is preserved not only in the hearts of relatives and friends, whose grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought as part of this formation, but also at the official level. Until recently, the surviving veterans of the division were honored in Ukraine. In Donetsk, where the division was recruited, memorial plaques were installed on the buildings where the regiments formed. Streets and settlements in different regions of the former Soviet Union are named after the Heroes of the Soviet Union who served in the 383rd Infantry Division.

Residents of Donbass have always been proud of the memory of their fathers and grandfathers, those who performed labor and military feats, those who saved the world from the brown plague, those who defended the freedom of both their native land and the country during the Great Patriotic War. A special line of this memory was and remains the glory of the mining divisions, which is often remembered now in the harsh days of the current undeclared war of Kyiv against Donbass, during which many of our neighbors, colleagues, co-workers, acquaintances and friends rose to defend the Motherland.

And then, from the Donetsk region alone, 175 thousand people went to fight as part of units and formations of the Soviet Army, more than 350 thousand entered the ranks of the people’s militia, and three divisions were formed from miners, about which legends are still made up.

Mining divisions were formed already in the first days of the war. According to the orders of the People's Commissar of Defense and the commander of the Kharkov Military District, it was necessary: ​​“the combat crews of combat units should be staffed exclusively by trained junior miners liable for military service in the relevant military specialties called up from the reserves. With the arrival of personnel in the division’s units, without waiting for full strength, immediately organize enhanced combat and political training within the units.”

In parallel with the 383rd, the 393rd and 395th divisions were formed. The miners went to the front almost in their best clothes: a section - a platoon, a mine - a company. Weeping children, wives, and mothers remained at home, and one glance at the map chilled the soul. The Nazis were already approaching Moscow, Donbass, and Crimea. The rapid advance of German troops prevented the complete formation of divisions from being completed. Understaffed with equipment and insufficiently trained, they were forced to accept a baptism of fire in their native land.

On October 7, north of Osipenko (Berdyansk), the 1st Panzer and 11th armies of the Fuhrer closed in, cutting off part of the Soviet troops of the 18th and 9th armies. With stubborn fighting, these units broke out of the ring, the 18th Army retreated to Stalino, the 9th to Taganrog. To close them into a new ring, German tanks crawled along the shore of the Sea of ​​Azov, the soldiers of the 395th Infantry Division blocked their way, and it was under their cover that the surviving units escaped the encirclement. The miners fought to the death. So the company, located in the Mangush-Mariupol direction, exactly as ordered, let the tanks pass through and stopped the German infantry. German tanks were shot down by gunfire. The miner's company did not flinch even when the tanks of the second echelon of Kleist's group arrived - after this attack only six soldiers remained alive.

At the beginning of October, units of the 383rd division moved to the Selidov area. Throughout October 1941, they fought continuous, stubborn, fierce battles with the invaders, who outnumbered the Soviet troops in terms of manpower and equipment. The front of each of our mining divisions sometimes stretched up to seventy kilometers. And the experienced leaders of the mining divisions, Heroes of the Soviet Union Konstantin Provalov, Ivan Zinoviev, battalion commander Veniamin Petrakovsky were forced, contrary to all academic knowledge, to conduct continuous battles over a vast territory. The approaches to Stalino were stubbornly defended. Bloody battles took place in the Mandrykino, Avdotino, and Rutchenkovo ​​stations. Something unimaginable was happening around: yellow and black smoke was creeping over the ground (the last coal mine was burning - they didn’t have time to take it out, they poured it onto waste heaps and set it on fire), bullets were whistling, people were screaming, on the streets of the city they fought hand-to-hand against the Nazis. But, despite the exceptionally fierce nature of the battles, our soldiers had to retreat. One can only guess what was going on in their hearts when they left their homes and loved ones to the mercy of the enemy.

In the battles for Stalino, the fascist German troops suffered heavy losses: up to 50 thousand killed and wounded, over 250 tanks, more than 170 guns, about 1,200 vehicles with cargo. They took out all their anger on the remaining residents of the city. Immediately, widespread looting began. The Nazis went around houses and took everything from people, even children’s underwear. The mayor of the city of Petushkov, appointed by the occupiers, issued an order: “The entire population must hand over food to the German command.” The commandant of the city, Zimmer, added to the order: “Whoever does not comply will be hanged.”

A wave of arrests followed and reprisals began. In just one day, November 1, 17 people were hanged in Stalino based on denunciations. But the infernal machine of terror did not stop for a minute. Palaces of culture, institutes, technical schools were turned into barracks and brothels. Concentration camps created by the Nazis began operating on the territory of the city.

Mining divisions retreated deeper into the Donbass, personnel losses reached up to fifty percent. Many unknown miners' graves remained in the Donetsk steppes, but fully combat-ready units reached new frontiers. They resisted the Germans, the Austrians, the Italians, and the Romanians.

By the end of October, the German army occupied the Kharkov area, broke into the southwestern part of Donbass, and reached the approaches to Rostov. The Nazis sought to seize bridgeheads on the southern bank of the Don and move to Maykop and Tuapse. They were stopped by the 383rd and 395th Miner Rifle Divisions. For more than eight months, from November 1941 to July 1942, Soviet troops held positions in the vicinity of the dominant heights of Saur-Mogila and the Mius River. The warriors showed miracles of heroism, fighting off their enemies until their last breath, until the last shell. The courage of Daniel the Heretic, Zakhar Galeta and many, many others will remain forever in the memory of the people. Here are the meager lines of front-line correspondence: “Three of our soldiers were lying next to a broken machine gun. Next to the first issue they found a piece of paper with just a few lines: “I am a miner. My grandfather and great-grandfather are miners, my father is a miner, my three brothers are also miners. I fought for Donbass."

Looking from today, we measure the Great Patriotic War by big battles - the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, and the Kursk Bulge. But would these great victories have been possible without stubborn battles for small villages, farmsteads, forests, fields, gullies?

A letter from Corporal Gotgelf Straub, written in the Donetsk steppes and never reaching the addressee, can serve as a unique answer to these questions: “Dear Gustel! We did not receive the gifts that we were supposed to be given in the army. We were deceived.

I hope that we will soon be able to get out of this Russia, so that we can finally live like human beings. You return from guard duty, collapse on the straw, and two hours later you have to stay awake again. There are fewer and fewer people. How many dead fathers, sons, grooms who will no longer see home. They rest here in the black earth. We are located in the Donetsk direction in winter quarters 50 kilometers from Stalino on the Mius River. Whoever gets out of this Russia in one piece can really consider himself lucky.”

To ensure that there were as few of these “lucky” as possible, the mining divisions fought conscientiously, and so that the Nazis did not delude themselves about their own health, Soviet soldiers reminded them of the possible consequences. Thus, at the height of Bezymyannaya in the Novopavlovka area, behind the front line of defense, cartoons were displayed: “Hitler”, “A German soldier without legs returns to his family” and others. They were an eyesore for the Germans, they opened fire on them, and fascist “hunters” crawled toward them. But the cartoons appeared again and again.

The mining divisions also became famous for their military initiative - sniper movement. There was even a song about the best snipers Maxim Byrskin and Fyodor Kudel:

So that the occupiers become numb in fear,
To make her tremble a little -
To combat sniper Fyodor Kudela
Friendly miner's "hurray."

Mining divisions did not retreat from their positions without orders, but, unfortunately, in the first years of the war they often had to occupy more and more new defensive lines. The divisions fell to the defense of Rostov and the Kuban villages, but the hottest battles took place for the Caucasus.

The battles in the Caucasus were terrible, “multi-story” - on land, at sea, in the sky, in the mountains. They reached their greatest intensity on the approaches to Tuapse, it was at this time that the infamous fascist order was born: “Do not take sailors and miners prisoner, immediately destroy them.”

They say that every front-line soldier has a main place in the war, to which the highest spiritual impulses and physical labor are given on the verge of the impossible. For my grandfather, Ivan Popov, who defended his native land in the ranks of the 395th division since 1941, and stormed Berlin in 1945, this place became the Caucasus. According to his recollections, the battles took place on steep cliffs and narrow paths, every piece of bread, every mine and shell was delivered to the front line literally by hand. Each wounded man was carried to the rear on his shoulders, walking along steep, icy slopes. And in order to finally break the will of the Soviet soldiers, the Nazis spilled oil along the Terek and set it on fire. After that, it became impossible to even get drunk.

But even in these unbearable conditions, the fighters of the mining divisions did not lose their courage. According to eyewitnesses, Junior Lieutenant Golyadkin caught enemy grenades on the fly and immediately sent them back. And the machine gunners who were left without ammunition sometimes got up and rushed unarmed to enemy positions.

On the night of November 19, 1943, the troops of the Southwestern and Don Fronts heard the order: counterattack! They liberated their native land inch by inch and it is impossible to count how many “nodes of resistance” they encountered along the way, which were organized by the fascists.

On October 9, as evidenced by the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Soviet troops “as a result of many days and stubborn battles completed the defeat of the enemy’s Taman group and completely cleared the Taman Peninsula of invaders

The following particularly distinguished themselves in battles: the 383rd Infantry Division and the 395th Infantry Division.

From now on, these formations and units will be called the 395th Taman Rifle Division, and the 393rd will be nominated for the Order of the Red Banner for particularly skillful and decisive actions.”

After the battles for the liberation of the Taman Peninsula, the paths of the mining divisions diverged. The 383rd crossed the Kerch Strait under fascist fire, meter by meter recapturing a bridgehead on the Kerch Peninsula and liberating Crimea. The 395th Tamanskaya went with battles to the north, through Belarus, the Baltic states, Poland to Berlin.

They fought heroically. For the victory in the Crimea, the title “Feodosia” was added to the name of the 383rd division; for the successful invasion of the Brandenburg region of Germany, the title “Brandenburg” was added to it. Now it began to be called Feodosia-Brandenburg, and its three rifle regiments - Sevastopol. She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Suvorov, second degree.

The Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Suvorov, second degree, adorned the banner of the 395th Taman Division. Unfortunately, the fate of the third mining division was tragic. The 393rd Rifle Division under the command of Ivan Zinoviev courageously fought the enemy at the beginning of the war, the Nazis even nicknamed it the “black division”, but in 1942 this division was surrounded during a breakthrough in the Kharkov-Barven direction. It is not known exactly how many soldiers were killed and captured. And its commander “Colonel Ivan Zinoviev was shot by the Germans for preparing to escape from a fascist camp”

Like this: three divisions - three roads. But heroism, courage, bravery were common to everyone, as was the contribution to the cause of our Great Victory; the defenders and liberators of Donbass and all of Europe believed in it unconditionally, as well as in the fact that their feat would not be forgotten.

And indeed, during the Soviet years, in memory of the feat of the warrior defender and liberator, majestic monuments were erected at the battlefields on Donetsk soil, as elsewhere.

One of them, a jubilant soldier with a raised machine gun, crowned the Saur-Mogila memorial complex. The pylons of this complex, located along the stairs leading from the foot to the top of the mound, perpetuated the glory of the military branches, military formations, as well as the names of the fallen soldiers.

During the days of the celebration of the liberation of Donbass from the Nazi occupation on September 8 and the celebration of the Great Victory on May 9, almost the entire Donetsk region gathered at Saur-Mogila, as well as numerous guests and veteran liberators, those who had the opportunity to break through the created during the occupation, including It includes almost a dozen lines, a deeply echeloned fascist defense of the Mius Front, the key point of which was Saur-Mogila..

Several years ago, with one of these veterans, with Vasily Peretyatko from Rostov, who was during the war the commander of the intelligence department of one of the 152nd Guards Rifle Order of Alexander Nevsky Rifle Regiment that liberated Donbass, the 50th Guards twice Order of Suvorov and Kutuzov Stalin Division, the author of these lines I had a chance to talk. The gray-haired scout talked about those events, showed the stitches-paths and beams along which he happened to move and the trench from which he adjusted fire during the assault on Saur-Mogila.

Communicating then, we did not even imagine that literally after some time the terrible Great Patriotic War would fall over the mounds and waste heaps of decades and war would come to Donetsk land again...

In 2014, it came straight from the Kyiv Maidan.

It was from there that the invasion of the Donetsk steppes by neo-fascist punitive hordes began. And everything happened again...

How then in 1941 the best sons of Donbass stood up to defend the Motherland. Like their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, they courageously and selflessly fought and continue to fight the enemy, and now both the Donetsk land and the Saur-grave, which the militia defended and stormed as staunchly as their heroic ancestors, are shrouded in new legends.

Meanwhile, in reality, the battles for Saur-Mogila lasted a long time - about three months from the beginning of June until the end of August 2014.

During these battles, the militia, in particular the soldiers of the Vostok brigade, destroyed up to a battalion of foreign, presumably Polish, mercenaries, up to a thousand Ukrainian punitive forces and about 45 tanks.

It is symbolic that the wounded monument to the victorious Soviet soldier, inspiring the defenders of Donbass, held out despite the shelling. It fell only when the Nazis entered Saur-Mogila for a short time, but the militias did not allow them to settle down and take over; they returned to the height on August 26, 2014.

Now anyone who has visited Saur-Mogila is overcome with awe and pride from touching the feat, and at the same time bitterness and pain...

The majestic memorial was destroyed, and at the foot of the mound and at its top, there are fresh graves of the defenders. Now songs are sung over them and the free steppe winds of their homeland whisper feather grass, for the freedom to which they gave their lives.

If you notice an error, select the required text and press Ctrl+Enter to report it to the editors