On the entire front, there was the only place where the Germans were never able to cross the state border of the Soviet Union. She was held by 135 joint ventures. The shocked Germans filmed the shooting of our guys on camera, trying to unravel the mystery of their invincibility.
On the eve of the Great Victory Day, it is necessary to remember that there was the only place on the entire front of hostilities where the enemy from the first day of the war could not cross the state border of the Soviet Union. The Germans were seriously shocked by the inflexibility of our soldiers of the 135th Infantry Regiment (14th Infantry Division), who defended the passage to the Sredny and Rybachy peninsulas on the isthmus on the Musta-Tunturi ridge.
Even in the very first hours of the Great Patriotic War, the fascists seem to have seriously realized that they had encountered special unbending people there. The Fritzes then captured two Soviet servicemen, arranged lynching right on the spot and on June 30, 1941, shot them, filming the entire execution on camera, and the photos of our unbroken guys were sent to the German headquarters.
Nowadays, it was these photographs that made it possible to understand what kind of massacre was there, on the Soviet polar border, and who exactly then was executed by the Nazis and why. Almost 8 decades after that fateful June 1941, at the very same stone in the Black Tundra (on the Musta-Tunturi ridge), which was recorded in that fateful Hitler photo, the remains of these two heroes were not only discovered, but also partially identified. We have already written about this, but this story is so unusual that we will venture to retell it again.
The mystery of the death of heroes
Not so long ago, on the Kola Peninsula in the Russian Arctic, Russian pathfinders found the grave of two Soviet servicemen. They were helped in this by black-and-white photos from the Great Patriotic War.
The photographs show the execution of two Red Army soldiers on June 30, 1941.
A photo report from that execution was kept in Norway. In the 90s, it was from there that part of the archive about the war in the very polar lands that lie between Norway and Russia was transferred to Murmansk. The Norwegians claimed that they got the chronicle prints about that execution from one of the real participants in the massacre - the German mountain shooter.
Our Murmansk ethnographers wanted to reconstruct the details of what happened and find out the reasons for the execution of the Soviet citizens captured in those "Norwegian" photographs.
One of the Germans who took part in the storming of the Soviet border on June 28-30, 1941, in the very place where the lynching was carried out, left a memoir.
Today the book of the German Hans Ryuf "Mountain arrows in front of Murmansk" is posted on the Internet in two languages.
It says that the Nazis attacked the Soviet border on this stretch at the very end of June 1941. Just at that very point of the future mournful photo execution (height 122), the day before, Soviet servicemen defeated an enemy reconnaissance group. And the Nazis watched all this carnage through the eyepieces of binoculars. Only one of the German intelligence officers survived at that time. And that is only because out of fear he, as they say, jumped straight from the cliff into the lake.
And at night, angry Germans began to storm Hill 122. Hitler's mountain riflemen then faced unprecedented resistance from Soviet soldiers. The result of that fascist attack shocked the Fritzes: German losses in one battle with the Red Army exceeded all those that they suffered during the entire Polish campaign. It was about the company of Chief Lieutenant Rohde.
The Germans wrote down then:
“Oberleutenant Rode, commander of the 2nd company of the 136th Mountain Rifle Regiment … on the night of June 29, 1941, sent a combined reconnaissance group under the command of Ostermann … with the task of climbing to height 122 and reconnoitering the situation. As soon as the reconnaissance group disappeared behind the crest of the hill, explosions of grenades and intense firing from machine guns were heard, but everything was quiet very quickly. The Jaegers of the 2nd Company realized that Ostermann's group had most likely been destroyed or captured by the Russians. And so they began to rush to storm the heights.
At 5 o'clock in the morning (June 30, 1941), Oberleutenant Rode gave the order to storm the heights under the cover of the morning fog. Bursting to the top, the soldiers entered into an extremely fierce battle, which turned into hand-to-hand combat …
At 6 hours 15 minutes altitude 122 was taken. It was defended by the soldiers of the 135th Infantry Regiment of the 14th Infantry Division of the Red Army."
“The 2nd company of mountain riflemen lost 16 people killed and 11 wounded in this short battle. This was more than her losses during the entire Polish campaign …"
Two Red Army men survived then. The angry Germans lynched and shot them. But before that, the cameras were turned on, and the execution itself was recorded on tape. The Nazi commander ordered to record the process in the photo. So one of the German shooters was recording, and the other was filming it all. Soviet soldiers were killed on record because they then shocked their enemies with their fury, bravery and courage. By the way, it was here, in the direction to Murmansk, that the only place on the entire western border of the Soviet Union that the Nazis never managed to cross was found. And the legendary 135 rifle regiment held this bridgehead …
The impartial film and the Fritzes' memoirs testify that our soldiers knew that they were being executed. But they did not surrender and did not submit. They look at the enemy just for a second before the shot, contemptuously, and they hold themselves courageously.
And a German who served in that mountain rifle corps wrote about that day that
“The Russians understood perfectly well why they would be shot …
After all this, our (fascist) commander sent all the notes and film to the headquarters."
Find
By a lucky coincidence, search engines found the grave of the executed Soviet soldiers almost eight decades later. One summer afternoon, the pathfinders from the Zapolyarny Frontier Club performed a battle reconstruction at the same height 122. Some of them were in the role of Germans, others - fought in the form of soldiers of the Red Army. Of course, we prepared, studied archives, photos and memoirs. Suddenly, during the war game, the Murmansk trackers realized that they were exactly at the very stone where the two heroes of those first days of the Great Patriotic War were shot. Indeed, the remains of those executed were buried under the grass.
In the book of memoirs of the commander of the reconnaissance detachment of the 135th rifle regiment Vasily Petrovich Barbolin "Unforgettable Rybachy" we read:
“A battle began in the area of the 6th frontier outpost. Small groups of enemy forces from squad to platoon, seeping at the junctions of subunits, tried to advance in the direction of Kutovaya along the entire front from Bolshoi Musta-Tunturi to height 122, 0. But everywhere they were met by machine gunners and scouts fire.
Short battles ensued, and, having lost several people killed, the mountain huntsmen were forced to retreat. On the night of June 30, on the Titovka-Kutovaya road, in small groups and alone, soldiers of the 95th regiment and border guards began to appear, departing from the Titov direction (the 95th rifle regiment was part of the 14th rifle division). There were many wounded among them …
Under the turf, at a depth of about an elbow, those trackers found bones. It turned out that the Germans accurately recorded everything: before the execution, these recalcitrant Red Army men, on the orders of the Nazis, dug their own grave pit. And all this is under the lenses of German cameras. Who knew that the very same ill-fated photos of the fascists would help to find this place of execution many decades later?
Here is the Russian spirit, here it smells of Russia
But who are they, those our Soviet heroes-martyrs? So this grave of unknown Soviet soldiers would have been nameless, if not for the discovery made more than seven decades later. And all because, with German pedantry, the Fritzes recorded the entire procedure of their execution. And the photographic film ruthlessly and truthfully recorded the situation of the death of our soldiers. It turned out that neither propaganda, nor pathos was one terrible story?
They were young, and their whole life was ahead of them. It was the ninth day of that terrible war - it was June 30, 1941. But they did not fall on their knees before the enemy, did not beg the enemies who treacherously attacked our Motherland for pardon. No. They did not humiliate themselves and did not flinch. And they accepted the execution with honor. And this is precisely what the Fritzes could not understand then. That is why they filmed everything then on photographic film in order to get to the bottom of the truth: what kind of people fought with them now? After all, they did not meet anything like that, marching all over Europe? That is why they sent photos of these incomprehensible, staunch and unbending, mysterious and brave Soviet soldiers to their German headquarters …
How did it happen that even those two Soviet soldiers who were shot by the Nazis then turned out to be stronger than the enemy? Braver than enemies? How, dying, they defeated the Nazis? What was this mysterious and incomprehensible "Russian spirit"? All this the Germans could not understand either then or now …
The place of their execution was searched for before at that fatal height 122. But the puzzles were formed only during the game reconstruction of the battle. And even if such war games sometimes seem to be just fun to someone, they really help a lot to restore the realities of long-past battles.
Participants-pathfinders then had to study in detail both the photo and the landscape. And to restore, from photographs, including the exact place of that execution. And the dumb witnesses of those events helped - huge boulders and constant bends of rocks. A tip from the Germans from that photo taken on that day, June 30, 1941 …
Near the boulder, next to which two Red Army soldiers were captured on the eve of the execution, the search engines found not only the bones of those two soldiers under the grass. It turned out that over the years, belts have also been preserved, as well as some details of clothing.
Even a mining worker's union card has not completely decayed. In the photo, one of the executed was in an overcoat. So, after so many years, not only pre-war coins were found in the pocket of that same greatcoat.
And also the so-called "mortal medallion". This is a small black pencil case, where the Red Army soldiers usually hid a note.
The dampness made the ink on the note blurry, of course.
But experienced trackers still managed to read it. The name of the hero was there. It turned out to be Sergey Makarovich Korolkov. And his year of birth was indicated there - 1912. He was born in a village called Khmelishche, which was then in the Velikie Luki region in the Serezhensky district. He was married to Ekaterina Lukinichna Korolkova.
And then they looked in the archives. It turned out that Sergei Korolkov went to the front on June 22, 1941, that is, on the very first day of the war, as a volunteer from the city of Kirovsk. There he worked at the Apatit enterprise. This means that he could not have been called up on the armor, but he did not bother, and went to the front. Therefore, he was dismissed from June 23, 1941.
Sergei's biography was the most typical. Of the peasants. Education - three classes. Working profession - driller at the mine since 1931. He was a member of the trade union. There were no marks of penalties. In 1940 he became a father, Sergei had a daughter.
The search engines found the daughter of Private Korolkov. She lives with six grandchildren in the Tver region. She does not remember her father Sergei, because she was only a year old when her father went to war, and there on the ninth day he was shot by the Nazis. Father's card has not been preserved in the family photo album.
But in the photo albums, the Nazis preserved a photo of Sergei Korolkov and his comrade. Sergei Korolkov was executed by the Nazis at gunpoint on June 30, 1941 at an altitude of 122 in the polar tundra near Murmansk. But his family considered him missing for more than seventy years.
But the identity of his partner has not yet been established. The photo only shows that it was a junior commander, judging by the signs on the gymnast. Search engines still do not lose hope of establishing the name of this glorious hero. This soldier was part of either the 135th Rifle Corps of the 14th Rifle Division of the 14th Army of the Northern Front or the 23rd SD of the Northern Fleet.
Combat log
On the site "Memory of the People" today posted the declassified on May 8, 2007, the journal of military operations of the 14th Army (Journal of military operations of troops 14 A. Describes the period from 1941-22-06 to 1941-31-08, Archive: TsAMO, Fund: 363, Inventory: 6208, Case: 46). On pages 20-24 of this document there are short notes about the situation in the Murmansk direction on June 29 and 30.
Here is what is sparingly recorded by hand about the situation of the last days of the life of our heroes and their comrades:
« June 29, 1941 … Murmansk direction. On the night of June 28-29, the enemy in the area of Lake Laya began preparations for the crossing. The artillery of the 14th Rifle Division dispersed the enemy group and was forced to abandon its intention.
At 3:00, two German companies launched an offensive from the area of heights 224, 0 (0642), but P. O. were thrown back to their original position. At the same time, on the left flank of the 2/95 joint venture, height 179, 0 led an offensive. By mid-day, the enemy had brought in up to four battalions of infantry into battle. At the same time, strong artillery fire and continuous attacks by bombers influenced the defending units of the 95th Rifle Corps.
Up to one and a half German and Finnish infantry divisions, supported by up to three artillery divisions and up to 30–35 aircraft, operated in front of the regiment's front, located along a front of up to 30 km.
At noon, units of the 95th Rifle Corps were forced to retreat to a new line under the onslaught of significantly superior enemy forces. At the height of 189, the 3rd 4th rifle company continued to fight in the encirclement.
By the end of the day, the enemy, developing the offensive, reached the front of an unnamed height (2658), west of the slope of height 388, 9; marks 180, 1; 158, 1; bridge over the Titovka river. At this point, further movement stopped.
By the end of the day, the 112th RV took up defensive positions at the waterfall line (1054); and unnamed height (0852).
52nd Rifle Division: 58th Rifle Division concentrated on 61 km."
And in the same place about the situation on June 30, 1941 (the day of execution of the Red Army soldiers of the 135th Rifle Division at a height of 122):
« June 30, 1941 … Murmansk direction.
The enemy, pulling up fresh forces and regrouping, by force up to a regiment, launched an offensive on the Musta-Tunturi ridge and pushed the 23rd UR units.
At 14:30, he reached the line: the southeastern heights of the Musta-Tunturi ridge east of the lakes (illegible name), mark 194, 1.
Commandant 23 UR One battalion of the 135th Rifle Corps and 15th Pulbat occupied the firing positions of the Kutovaya-Kazarma isthmus and suspended the enemy's further advance.
The commander of the 14th rifle division in the area of elevation 88, 5 (1050) concentrated 112 joint venture, just arrived from the march, began to prepare a counterattack in the direction of height 204, 2.
The 95th joint venture continued to retreat in the direction of the Zapadnaya Litsa River. The 4th Rifle Company continued to conduct a fierce battle at altitude 189, 3 (1046), completely surrounded by the enemy.
The 112th Rifle Corps, taking up defenses on the eastern bank of the Titovka River, covered the withdrawal of the 95th Rifle Division, and under the onslaught of the enemy was forced to withdraw (crossed out "after") along with the 95th Rifle Division.
52 RD concentrated on the high bank of the Zapadnaya Litsa river at the waterfall section (9666), lake. Kuyrk Yavr, height 321, 9.
The enemy carried out continuous bombardments of retreating troops and suitable reserves throughout the day."
The impregnable Soviet cordon
On the hills of the Arctic tundra in those places, the front line is still clearly visible today. The search engines claim that it is still replete with firing points and is dotted with shell casings. And even with the bones of our soldiers.
The ashes of Sergei Korolkov, at the request of the family, were buried in his homeland, now in the Tver region.
And on the Rybachy peninsula to the heroes who defended the Soviet border and did not let the fascists in one iota, today they created a people's memorial "135 regiment".
Note
From the Murmansk archive:
In the Arctic, German regular units crossed the state border of the USSR on the night of June 28-29, 1941 - in the area of the village of Titovka (Murmansk direction).
The offensive was led by the army "Norway" under the command of General N. Falkenhorst. The Hitlerite army was opposed by units of the 14th Army of the Northern Front (after 23 August 1941 - the Karelian Front) under the command of Lieutenant General V. A. Frolov and the Northern Navy under the command of Admiral A. G. Golovko.
During defensive battles in June-September 1941 the enemy was stopped in the Murmansk direction - at the turn of the Zapadnaya Litsa river.
Until the fall of 1944, a trench warfare was fought in this direction.
