Nikolai Sysoev writes badly about the troops of the NKVD. In the Oryol region, a temple built by Count Komarovsky is being restored

Donbass by the end of the 30s became one of the most industrialized regions of the European part Soviet Union. Rich in minerals, especially coking coal, the region was the center of heavy engineering of all-Union significance. Many defense enterprises were also built here, the safety of which before the war was provided by units of the 71st brigade of the NKVD troops for the protection of especially important industrial enterprises. The heroic defense of the Donbass in 1941-1942, unfortunately, turned out to be in a kind of opportunistic-ideological shadow for historians. After all, the Nazis still managed to capture this important industrial region with great losses for him. But there are events that you definitely need to know, remember and be proud of.

NOT ONE STEP BACK

An archival document testifies - an entry faded from time in the historical form of the 176th regiment of the NKVD troops for the protection of especially important industrial enterprises: “11/21/41 in the Military Town (Debaltsevo) comrade. Borovensky, being the military commissar of the battalion, with a small group of fighters of 42 people. for 10 hours heroically repelled an enemy attack up to two battalions and inflicted significant damage in manpower and firepower.

Pavel Borovensky. Photo from 1940
Some of the current skeptics, after reading these lines, may say, you think there, only a dozen hours ... But, you see, these 10 hours under continuous fire, shell explosions and a hurricane of death had to be withstood! In addition, a handful of fighters all this time held back up to two battalions of enemy infantry - and this is at least 1000 heavily armed, trained and well-trained Nazi soldiers. A true and indisputable feat!

Who is he, this fearless Comrade. Borovensky?

The courageous military commissar was only about 22 years old. A native of the original Cossack settlement Yevsug, in the Luhansk region, Pavel Romanovich Borovensky was born in the midst of the Civil War - in the "combat 18th". After the establishment of a peaceful life, he graduated from an agricultural school, managed to work at a stud farm, then, on a Komsomol ticket, ended up in the police. Work as a rural district policeman tempered the character of the young man, gave a certain life and professional experience, so necessary for service in the NKVD troops.

In 1938, Pavel Borovensky was a Red Army soldier of the 88th separate battalion of the NKVD troops stationed in the industrial town of Rubizhny. Military unit she guarded important facilities - the Southern plant for the production of TNT and other explosives and the Severo-Donetsk State District Power Plant in Lisichansk. In 1940, Borovensky graduated from military-political courses with the assignment of the special rank of "junior political instructor", which corresponded to a lieutenant.

On the second day of the war, the 176th regiment deployed on the basis of the battalion, which became part of the newly formed 71st brigade of the NKVD troops, which took under protection all the defense industrial enterprises of Donbass. And the junior political instructor, as they used to say then, becomes the regimental "Komsomol leader" - the secretary of the VLKSM bureau of the 176th regiment.

In November-December 1941, fierce battles unfolded for the Donbass. The Nazi command sent huge forces here - the 52nd Italian division "Torino" and the reinforced grouping of troops of General of the Infantry von Schwedler, which consisted of five to six divisions. The enemy manages to capture Debaltseve. Then, to help the troops of the 12th Army, which was tasked with driving the Germans out of the city at all costs, they sent almost the entire 71st brigade of the NKVD troops, reorganized into a rifle brigade. Borovensky went into battle already as a military commissar of one of the battalions of his regiment.

Chekist soldiers stormed the most important railway junction four times and drove out the desperately resisting enemy with heavy losses for him. However, the Nazis, striving to take revenge at any cost, tirelessly threw fresh forces into battle. On one of the directions, all their attacks were stopped by destructive fire, which was fired from big building with thick brick walls of the former military camp.

As it turned out, in the building, as if in an impregnable citadel, the same small group of fighters numbering 42 people under the command of Pavel Borovensky was entrenched. The enemy, despite the heavy losses in manpower, continued, like a wounded animal, to throw himself under the bullets of the fearless garrison. The Nazis managed to pull up several cannons and open fire on the building with direct fire.

Then Borovensky sent machine gunners to the roof in order to destroy the gun crews. The fire duel continued for several more hours. But the Nazis still managed to get to the first floor and set fire to the house with impenetrable walls from the inside. Then the KGB fighters concentrated on the second floor and continued to pour a hail of bullets on the Nazis and throw grenades at them. However, the forces were too unequal, the fearless garrison was running out of ammunition. Killed and wounded appeared among the defenders, an enemy bullet struck down the commissar. His last words, addressed to his subordinates, were: "Not a step back!"

The surviving soldiers, having received an order to leave the dilapidated building, carried out the dead and wounded under the cover of night and reported to their command how bravely they fought and how heroically their military commissar died.

The feat of the junior political officer Pavel Borovensky was highly appreciated: by order of the troops of the Southern Front of February 20, 1942, he was posthumously awarded the highest award USSR - the Order of Lenin!

According to the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, fellow soldiers buried Pavel Borovensky in a mass grave on the central square of Debaltseve...

TOGETHER… FOREVER

This regiment has an amazing and incredible story. In his lists (the fact is exceptional and has no analogues) forever enrolled married couple- husband-battalion commander and wife-medical instructor, who died a heroic death in fierce battles for the Donbass.

In the battle formations of the regiment, an unusual machine-gun crew also bravely fought against the hated enemy: father and son are miners. Well, the combat banner of the unit, after being disbanded, was the main relic of the Donetsk Police Museum for more than a decade.

On the defensive lines of Donbass, another regiment of the 71st brigade of the NKVD troops, the 175th, selflessly repulsed the onslaught of the Nazis. It was also formed on the third day of the war on the basis of the 73rd (Stalino) and 87th (Gorlovka) separate battalions of the NKVD troops. The task is to protect (until the evacuation of equipment to the east of the country) the most important defense enterprises in the cities of Stalino (Donetsk) - plant No. 144 for equipping aerial bombs and shells, Gorlovka - plant No. 64 - the production of explosives, Slavyansk - the Krasny Khimik plant, which provided army with chemicals, as well as the Zuevskaya State District Power Plant. Most of the regiment's personnel were former miners and workers of local enterprises.

And already in October 1941, the regiment, reinforced by employees of the UNKVD in the Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Stalin regions, as well as the cavalry squadron of the Donetsk police, became part of the army.

When the commander of the 1st battalion, senior lieutenant Vasily Komardin, told his wife Zoya that he was leaving for the front to defend his native Donbass, the wife categorically stated: “I’m going with you!” All persuasions to evacuate to the rear with the wives of the command staff were resolutely rejected. Then Zoya Komardina was enrolled as a medical instructor in one of the regiment's companies.

In a fierce battle with the Nazis on November 22, 1941, in the Matveev Kurgan area, the regiment suffered significant losses. Medical instructor Komardina, who pulled more than a dozen wounded soldiers from the battlefield, was mortally wounded by a fragment of a Nazi mine. Battalion commander Vasily Komardin, having buried his beloved wife in the village of Tsimlyanka, swore on the grave to cruelly avenge the enemy for her death.

... In early December, the 41st regiment, by order of the command, launched a decisive offensive against Debaltseve. Komardin's battalion in battles has always been the first not only in number, but also in the unbending "Donbass" spirit of fighters and commanders who mercilessly crushed the enemy. In a swift attack on December 1, the battalion captured the enemy command post and put to flight the elite units of the SS Viking division. But the enemy bullet overtook the brave battalion commander. On his last breath, he admonished his comrades with the words: “Forward ... pursue the enemy ... do not stop ...” Senior Lieutenant Komardin survived his beloved wife only for eight days - but he made the enemy pay dearly for her death!

By order of the commander of the 71st brigade of the NKVD troops No. 220 dated December 26, 1941, signed in the Donbass village of Chernukhino (which is symbolic), the lists of the 175th regiment were forever enlisted "the wife of Komardina, who died heroically in the fight against the Nazi invaders" - husband Battalion commander and nurse wife. The order specifically emphasized: “We must remember and never forget about the warrior-heroes of the brigade ... We will forever honor the memory of glorious heroes!”

The best machine-gun crew of the 175th Chekist Regiment was considered the father and son of Trusha, who were famous among the fighters for their tirelessness and fearlessness, the crew was always sent to the most difficult fates and knew that they would not let you down. On December 22, during the attack on the Oktyabrsky settlement, the first number of the calculation, Luka Semenovich, died on the battlefield like a hero. His son Nikolai - the second number - swore an oath to take revenge on the Nazis for his death. The regimental combat report said: “Nikolai Trush in the attack on the village. Oktyabrsky from his machine gun mowed down a lot of fascist reptiles ... At the end of the day he was wounded in both legs, but did not leave the battlefield ... "

Both fearless machine gunners were deservedly awarded with high military awards - the Orders of the Red Banner. But Luka Semenovich Trush - posthumously. And the son, Nikolai Lukich, having recovered from his wounds, went through the whole war, returned from the front to his native Donbass, and worked for decades as the head of the Enakievo city communications center. In 1973, another one was added to his military awards - the Order of the Badge of Honor - for labor achievements!

Subsequently, the heroic regiment fought against the Nazis in Rostov region, in the Kuban and the North Caucasus. And in 1943 he deservedly became the "Red Banner"! By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the unit was awarded the Order of the Red Banner "for the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the German invaders and the valor and courage shown at the same time"!

After the war, the regiment, as before, guarded important state facilities for several more years, and in the 50s it was disbanded. battle banner The Red Banner Regiment was justly handed over for eternal storage to the Museum of the History of the Donetsk Militia.

And then other times came...

Has the mass grave of the heroic defenders of Debaltsevo from 1941-1942 survived after the well-known events of 2015? And according to DPR news agencies, back in 2014, the Donetsk Police Museum was looted by Ukrainian policemen drugged by the pernicious ideas of nationalism. Nevertheless, in 2016 the Museum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Donetsk people's republic(now it is called so) recreated again. However, many former (Soviet) valuable relics, unfortunately, have been irretrievably lost...

“No matter how the enemy tried ... to take Tula and thereby open his way to the capital, he did not achieve success. in rout German troops near Moscow, Tula and its inhabitants play an outstanding role,” writes Georgy Zhukov in his memoirs. But few people know that the “outstanding role” was played primarily by the state security officers of the NKVD Directorate for the Tula region, the militia workers and soldiers of the 69th brigade of the NKVD troops guarding defense enterprises.

The abbreviation NKVD, ostracized since Khrushchev's time, even today causes extreme hostility among liberals of all stripes. But it is the Chekists and fighters internal troops together with the Tula workers stood in the way of tank wedges.

Under one cover, perhaps for the first time, documents, historical articles and memoirs of veterans are collected, giving a wide range of readers the opportunity to find out who and how saved the city from Nazi occupation in the first, most difficult days of its defense. The Tula security officers formed fighter detachments and battalions, created reconnaissance and sabotage groups, organized partisan movement on the territory of the region. And when the Nazis on October 30, 1941, tried to capture the city with a direct tank strike, they ran into the tough defense of a few units and subunits under the command of Colonel Alexander Melnikov, the military commandant of the city and commander of the 69th brigade of the NKVD troops.

The superior enemy was stopped by the fighters of the Tula workers' regiment under the command of the captain of state security Anatoly Gorshkov, the 156th rifle regiment of the NKVD and the Consolidated police detachment. It was they who fearlessly threw themselves under enemy tanks with grenades and bottles of combustible mixture. They were supported by direct fire only a few calculations of the 732nd anti-aircraft artillery regiment.

The defenders of the city survived. On November 2, Krasnaya Zvezda wrote: “At twelve o’clock in the morning, Comrade Melnikov’s advanced posts heard the rumble of engines ... 48 German tanks... Melnikov gave a signal to the artillerymen ... There were left on the battlefield a large number of burnt tanks, killed soldiers and officers. Hitler's attack bogged down. For several more days, Chekist soldiers and militias steadfastly held back the frantic tank throws of Guderian and the SS regiment "Grossdeutschland" until the Red Army units arrived in time.

It should be noted that the head of the book project "Winners" was former boss The Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Tula Region, retired Major General Vladimir Lebedev, who devoted many years to collecting and summarizing little-known materials, facts and memories, convincingly testifying to the unparalleled resilience of Tula people.

It is symbolic that the presentation of the publication took place in the Tula Museum of Weapons. The governor of the region Hero of Russia Alexei Dyumin exhaustively described the collection in the introductory article: "This book is a sign of deep respect and admiration for the feat of fellow countrymen."

“Winners. Collection of articles and memoirs. Tula, Aquarius, 2016, 436 pages, illustrations.

Nikolay Sysoev,
retired colonel

In the Oryol region, a temple built by Count Komarovsky is being restored

The name of Evgraf Komarovsky is directly connected with the history of the creation in Russia of a separate corps of the Internal Guard. Back in 1811, the internal security of the country was put on the shoulders of this structure. Historians rightly consider Count Komarovsky the guardian of order in the empire. He led the guards for more than seventeen years. The guard was engaged in law enforcement, security, the fight against crime, the protection of prisons, state warehouses, treasuries and administrative buildings.

Evgraf Komarosky,great-grandson of E. Komarovsky in the fourth generation : "His main feature was that he never offended his subordinates, he demanded that they never offend soldiers."

Nikolay Sysoev,retired colonel, military historian: “The peasants idolized him, and when he died in Orel in 1843, his serfs, on their own initiative, as his grandson wrote in his memoirs, came to Orel on foot, and in their arms, changing each other, carried the coffin with the body of their master in Settlement where he was buried.

Father Nicholas,priest, rector of the church in the village of Gorodishche in honor of the icon of the Dormition Holy Mother of God : “The temple, created by Count Komarovsky for residents, was destroyed in 1969. There were two temples in Gorodishe. One Church of the Dormition Mother of God and the second - the temple of All Saints, from the latter there was only one worship cross.

Vitaly Shevkunov,Head of the Department of the Russian Guard in the Oryol Region, Police Lieutenant Colonel : “I am glad that in the Oryol region there is a story associated with our service. It was Komarovsky who founded the system in which we are now working.”

The author of these lines, perhaps one of the few researchers, happened to hold in his hands the genuine personal file of the Hero of the Soviet Union Stepan Andreyevich Neustroev, which was kept in one of the closed archives under the heading "Secret". Thanks to this, intricate details that were not included in the official biography the legendary battalion commander of Victory. It turned out that he had to take off his shoulder straps three times, work as a mechanic at a factory, serve in the administration of prisoner of war camps and in parts of the internal troops for the protection of important defense facilities, on which "the country's nuclear shield was forged" ...

“ACTED EXCEPTIONALLY BRAVELY…”

“Captain Neustroev, during the capture of the Reichstag, acted exceptionally bravely, decisively, showed military prowess and heroism. His battalion was the first to break into the building, entrenched in it and held it for a day ... Under the leadership of Captain Neustroev, a red flag was hoisted over the Reichstag ... ”- these are the lines from Stepan Neustroev’s original award sheet on his presentation to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, dated May 6 1945. But the battalion commander will receive the Gold Star only a year later - by the Decree of the USSR PVS of May 8, 1946. The reason for the delay is quite ordinary - they figured out for a long time which divisions of which division were the first to break into the Reichstag and hoisted their assault flag over it. After all, at least nine similar red panels with a star, sickle and hammer stenciled with white paint were prepared ...

At the end of the war, the "batyans" - battalion commander was only 23 years old. But he looked brave, despite the fact that he was short, pockmarked and, in general, did not fit the standards of an epic handsome hero. However, he is wiry, strong, and not only in body, but also in spirit. True, he had a very rough, straightforward character, often cut the truth-womb, regardless of rank and title, which the authorities did not always like, and the truth-seeker himself pretty much spoiled his life.

... The military service of the 19-year-old Stepan, a turner of the Berezovzoloto trust, began in June 1941, when he entered the Cherkasy Military Infantry School, which had just been relocated from Ukraine to Sverdlovsk. The course is accelerated. Six months later, Neustroev was a lieutenant and commander of a foot reconnaissance platoon of a rifle regiment near Moscow. And right off the bat - into hell. This is how the unfired officer remembered his first attack: “I remember one thing from this battle: I ran forward almost in a continuous smoke of explosions ... People fell to the right and left of me ... In that first battle, I understood little ... ".

The first wound was not long in coming - a jagged fragment broke two ribs and got stuck in the liver. Upon discharge from the hospital, they were stunned: “I’m fit for combat. But it is not suitable for reconnaissance "...

In 1944, Neustroev, dressed as a captain, ended up in the 756th Infantry Regiment of the very 150th Idritskaya Division, whose number will be forever imprinted on the Banner of Victory. As part of this compound, he reached Berlin. By that time, the chest of the dashing battalion commander, as the front-line soldiers used to say, was adorned with a whole iconostasis - six military awards: orders - Alexander Nevsky, Red Star, Patriotic War I and II degrees and two medals - "For Courage" and "For the Capture of Warsaw". As for combat wounds, the fearless officer had five of them, only one less than the awards ...

On April 30, 1945, the soldiers of the battalion of Captain Neustroev were the first to break into the Reichstag, and some time later they hoisted a red victory banner on the pediment (note, not on the dome), firmly tying the staff with straps to one of the sculptural compositions. It was this assault flag that was destined to become the Banner of Victory.

Subsequently, Neustroev continued to serve in the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany (GSOVG), which was created on June 9-10, 1945 on the basis of the 1st Ukrainian Front, in the former position of a battalion commander.

THE BANNER OF VICTORY WAS NOT AT THE VICTORY PARADE

The first commander of the GSOVG, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who was appointed to host the Victory Parade on Red Square, came out with the initiative to deliver the assault flag from Berlin to Moscow. An abbreviated inscription was additionally made on the red cloth: “150 pages of the Order of Kutuzov II class. Idritsk. div. 79 S.K. 3 U.A. 1 BF. Accompanying the banner on a specially dedicated aircraft was Stepan Neustroev and four more of his comrades-in-arms. It is symbolic that at the Tushino airfield the Banner of Victory met guard of honor under the command of Captain Valentin Varennikov, also a participant in the storming of Berlin, the future army general and Hero of the Soviet Union.

It was planned to open a grandiose parade on Red Square with the passage of the calculation with the Banner of Victory. But the standard-bearer Neustroev and his assistants, who did not learn how to clearly print a step on the battlefield, did not impress Zhukov at the rehearsal, and he decided not to take the Banner to Red Square. “How to go on the attack, so Neustroev is the first, but I’m not fit for the parade,” the former battalion commander later recalled with sad irony the thought that flashed through his head then.

In August 1946, Neustroev, who had received major epaulettes the day before, was about to enter military academy them. M.V. Frunze. But the medical board "rejected" him for health reasons, the reason - five wounds and slight lameness. Then Stepan Andreevich in his hearts writes a letter of resignation and goes home to the Urals.

And yet, many years later, Stepan Andreevich’s dream to walk along Red Square with the Banner of Victory came true: on May 9, 1985, at a military parade dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, he solemnly marched next to the military shrine as an assistant with a saber drawn.

In the service in "places not so remote ..."

After short rest Neustroev decided to look for work. But the only specialty of a turner is somewhat forgotten. And then the former front-line soldiers, who got a job in the camps for German prisoners of war, scattered across the Urals, call to themselves: they say, there is a length of service, and rations, and salaries for those times are not bad. Neustroev reluctantly (probably did not want to see "these Fritzes" again) agrees and, apparently, considers this a continuation of the fight against fascism.

New, unusual for a military officer, job titles appear in his track record: head of the camp department of the Directorate of POW Camp No. 200 (Alapaevsk), then head of the KEO Department of POW Camp No. 531 (Office in Sverdlovsk).

German prisoners of war are building workshops for new factories, building houses for workers, laying roads and communications. Looking at these miserable warriors in worn uniforms, the front-line soldier probably recalled how sweat and blood he and his battalion had to take every line of the enemy, every Nazi fortified area, and how many comrades he lost in the process. Not to mention the Reichstag, which, with the hopelessness of a hunted beast, was desperately defended by selected SS units.

By the end of 1949, in connection with the mass repatriation of prisoners of war to Germany, the camps were abolished one by one. Neustroev is transferred to serve in the system of correctional labor institutions. The following positions are on the track record: the commandant of the Pervouralsk ITK No. 6, the head of the KVCh (cultural and educational unit) of the Revdinsky ITK No. 7, the instructor of combat training of the security headquarters of the UITLK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sverdlovsk Region ...

It was morally much more difficult for a combat officer to work in zones where "their" criminals were sitting than with the Germans. There, behind the "thorn" were enemies, but here - after all, ours ...

1953 Death of Stalin. The ITU system was the first to feel the planned changes in the country - reviews of the cases of convicts and releases under amnesty began. In May of the same year, Neustroev removed his shoulder straps for the second time, he was fired due to staff reductions.

ON GUARD OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES

Again, Neustroev is out of work, and retirement is still far away. This time in Sverdlovsk, he gets a job as a simple mechanic at the local machine-building plant of the Ministry of Chemical Industry. There are many front-line soldiers among the partners, he quickly masters, gets the fifth category. In 1957, the workshop fulfilled the plan ahead of schedule. Stepan Andreyevich and several other leaders were rewarded with free vouchers to a sanatorium in Yalta. On the way back I stopped in Moscow, visited old front-line friends. And then fate takes another sharp turn.

One of the fellow soldiers called the former commander of the 79th rifle corps, which included the 150th division, Semyon Nikiforovich Perevertkin and said that the same battalion commander that took the Reichstag was visiting them. Perevertkin, by that time Colonel General and First Deputy of the “civilian” Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Nikolai Pavlovich Dudorov, immediately sent a car with an order to immediately deliver the hero to him. The meeting ended with the general persuading Neustroev to return to military service, but, however, in the internal troops. “From Moscow,” Stepan Andreevich recalled, “I arrived in Sverdlovsk as a military man.”

Parts of the internal troops, in which Neustroev continued his military service, guarded important defense enterprises, on which, as they used to say then, the “nuclear missile shield” of the Motherland was forged. Previously, these were top-secret cities, as one popular song sang, "which have no name", but only a secret code - Sverdlovsk-44 and Sverdlovsk-45. Such cities were not marked on geographical maps: barbed wire around them around the entire perimeter, a thorough checkpoint system, strict regime maintaining state secrets for all residents. Now these cities, although they are still protected, are declassified and even have their own Internet sites. The first is Novouralsk, which produced nuclear weapons, the second is Lesnoy, where highly enriched uranium was produced.

The service is extremely responsible. Therefore, in the foreground - the highest vigilance, the strictest secrecy, the most severe access control, which was required from the guards on duty by the commandant of the guarded facility with the Golden Star of the Hero. Soldiers and officers listened to him like God - unquestioningly: after all, he took the Reichstag! And that's it.

In 1959, Neustroev was promoted - deputy commander of the 31st internal security detachment (in military terms, therefore, deputy regiment commander) in closed Novouralsk and received the rank of lieutenant colonel. And in March 1962, he takes off his shoulder straps for the third time - this time he retires due to illness with the right to wear military uniform clothes.

Stepan Andreyevich and his family, on the advice of doctors, moved to live in Krasnodar, sat down to write their own memoirs, in which they intended to tell the whole truth about how they took Berlin, stormed the "lair of the fascist beast" - the Reichstag. And here, in the local book publishing house, his memoirs "Russian Soldier: On the Way to the Reichstag" withstand several reprints. In 1975, on the 30th anniversary of the victory, Neustroev, as a participant in the Great Patriotic War and Hero of the Soviet Union, was awarded military rank"Colonel".

In the 1980s, again on the advice of doctors, Neustroev moved to live in the Crimea - in Sevastopol. And here a terrible tragedy befell him: in 1988, his son Yuri, a rocket major in the Air Defense Forces, together with his wife and six-year-old son, died in a car accident ... An irreparable loss greatly undermines the already poor health of a front-line soldier. But he tries to hold on, continues to work on improving his memoirs, meets with young people, talks about the war, about exploits ...

In the mid-90s, Stepan Andreevich and his wife returned to Krasnodar, in the Ukrainian Crimea, it becomes unbearable for a front-line soldier to live - he often hears insulting things about him behind his back - "occupier". And in February 1998, on the eve of the celebration of February 23, he decides to go to Sevastopol to visit his daughter's family. But the trip turned out to be fatal - on February 26, the veteran’s heart could not stand it and the legendary “battalion commander of Victory” died suddenly ... The hero was buried with military honors at the Kalfa city cemetery on the outskirts of Sevastopol ...

Now, after the reunification of Crimea with Russia, soldiers of the internal troops have taken patronage over the grave of the legendary battalion commander of Victory.

In July 1937, the commander of the Separate Motorized Rifle Division special purpose named after F. Dzerzhinsky of the NKVD troops, brigade commander P. Toroshchin received a confidential instruction “from above”: to prepare a tank unit with the strictest secrecy to participate in “long exercises in a mountain camp”. The place and time of the "maneuvers" were not announced. Even in the Main Directorate of the Border and Internal Troops of the NKVD, few knew about the true task of the Dzerzhinsky tankers.
To staff the special unit, the best commanders and Red Army men were selected, not only excellent students in combat and political training, skillful specialists in their field, but, as emphasized in the order, "dedicated to the cause of Lenin-Stalin", that is, politically reliable in all respects.
The formation of a separate consolidated tank company took place in a short time. Its combat strength, even by today's standards, turned out to be quite impressive: three platoons of five BT-7A light high-speed tanks, plus a tank of the same series for the company commander, as well as a reconnaissance platoon - that's another five T-38 amphibious tanks. A total of 21 tanks - a very powerful armored fist, capable of inflicting a crushing blow not only on a conditional, but actually on a real enemy.
In addition, the company included a mobile repair shop, a car radio station with a crew, and a sapper platoon. In addition, the tankers were given the required number of trucks - for the transportation of personnel, property, food, fuels and lubricants and ammunition.
On September 1, 1937, a tank company plunged into a railway echelon at the Reutovo station and, with increased secrecy, departed, as they say, "in an unknown direction." One of the orders regarding scrupulous confidentiality specifically emphasized that “the loading of parts, transportation through railway should be carried out with the strictest secrecy”, and the personnel were warned that in letters to their homeland they should not indicate “the actions of their units and subunits, as well as the names of local settlements ...”.
A few days later, the train was in Kyrgyzstan at the Kant station. The tankers were informed that they were being placed at the disposal of Colonel N. Noreiko, who headed one of the two special groups troops - Naryn (the name comes from the place of concentration of troops - a city in Kyrgyzstan), which, as it turned out, had already crossed the border with China and was in Xinjiang. Later, the participants of the “exercises” were announced that they were called upon to “provide international assistance to the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang Province.”
In 1927, the national revolution in China ended in the defeat of the revolutionary forces. Power passed to the Kuomintang, a bourgeois-nationalist party led by Chiang Kai-shek. The Chinese Communists, whom the Soviet Union, through the Comintern, helped in their revolutionary struggle, were forced to withdraw into the remote regions of the country to the so-called "revolutionary strongholds".
In 1933, the chief of staff of the local military region, General Sheng Shicai, seized power in Xinjiang, taking advantage of the weak control of the central Kuomintang government of China. But the rebellious general, who declared himself a “duban” (ruler) of a vast territory, was unable to cope with the Muslim rebels and also began to focus on the “northern neighbor”.
In 1936, another uprising broke out against the "duban" and Sheng Shicai asked for help from the Soviet government. Of course, there was no refusal - the creation of another puppet pro-Japanese state like Manchukuo near the southern borders of the USSR could not be allowed. In addition, the rebels cut off the Khorog-Urumqi-Hami-Lanzhou road, along which military supplies were delivered to both the Chinese Communists and the Kuomintang.
Before setting out on a long and difficult campaign through the Pamirs, the tankers were dressed in "uniforms of a special order", which looked more like the clothes of the local population living on both sides of the border - the same cut of robes and hats characteristic of this area. This is how the army of the “duban” and the military formations of the rebels were dressed. It was strictly forbidden to take any equipment with Soviet symbols with you on a hike.
After changing the clothes of the personnel, the company commander, Captain Khorkov, received the task: to march along the route Kant - Rybachye - Naryn. Further along the high-mountainous Turugart pass, cross the border with China and reach adjacent territory in Xinjiang province.
Having descended from the mountains, the tanks immediately turned on fighting. They supported Colonel Noreiko's cavalry group. Fortunately, the tactical and technical data of these particular combat vehicles was the best suited for escorting cavalry. Tank BT-7A - "high-speed artillery tank" - wheeled and caterpillar, with a speed of movement on tracks over 50 kilometers per hour, on wheels - about 70. Where conditions allowed, there was solid ground, the tracks were removed and combat vehicles on wheels-discs rushed forward at great speed, plunging the rebels and the local population into wild horror. Armament - short-barreled 76-mm cannons and machine guns - was almost never used, since the very sight of the "devil's iron chariots" rapidly racing in clouds of dust brought the enemy into a state of stupor and acted demoralizingly.
The rebels did not enter into open battle with the Russians. They tried to resist only in fortified settlements, which were called fortresses. But for tanks, they were not a serious obstacle. Steel machines easily punched through wooden gates and demolished adobe walls. The enemy, armed with antediluvian rifles, did not offer any serious resistance. Seeing how the tanks easily burst into their so-called fortresses, they threw down their weapons and, covering their heads with their hands, with cries of “Shaitan-arba!” fell to the ground. It remained only to take the rebels prisoner without a single shot.
However, after some time, continuous marches and all-pervading desert dust began to affect technical condition machines. But the soldier's ingenuity came to the rescue. It was decided to move forward through foreign territory by throws - from line to line. While one part of the tanks was being repaired, the other was fighting, freeing settlements. Then the tanks brought into combat condition were pulled up, and the tracks of the failed ones were changed, the motors were cleaned of dust and dirt. Then everything was repeated from the beginning.
Recalling the campaign in Xinjiang, one of the participants of that expedition emphasized that “the finale of the operational-combat activity of the cavalry group and the tank company that was part of it was the capture of a large enemy grouping near the border with India and the capture of a large caravan with looted property (up to 25 thousand camels and donkeys). Among the trophies were great amount valuables - precious stones, gold and silver items. All this was transported to the USSR on planes specially flown for this purpose. The landing sites for them were hastily prepared by the Dzerzhinsk tankers - they rolled the ground with tank tracks and at the same time ensured safety when loading and sending aircraft.
Other results were mentioned in the message of the head of the Main Directorate of the Border and Internal Troops of the NKVD, Divisional Commander N. Kruchinkin: as of January 1938, about a hundred Japanese, more than three hundred British, and even several Swedish agents were liquidated in Xinjiang. After that, the Soviet troops were partially withdrawn from the rebellious Chinese province ...
The return of the brave tankers to their homeland turned out to be no less difficult than the trip to Xinjiang itself. A few months later, on October 19, 1938, a decree was issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on rewarding the participants in the legendary operation. It did not contain a word about the true motives of the award. Its text was neutral and sounded like this: "For the exemplary performance of special government assignments to strengthen the defense power of the Soviet Union and for outstanding successes and achievements in combat, political and technical training of formations and units of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and NKVD troops."
The decree was published in the Pravda newspaper, and readers had a complete illusion that some kind of exercises were really taking place, and not a military raid on the territory of a neighboring state to assist the local authorities and strengthen Soviet influence in the region.

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