He was like everyone else
Sashka is an ordinary Moscow boy, born on November 1, 1920. In childhood, he was no different from other peers, except that he grew up in a family without a father. He was such a boy-ringleader and spent most of his time on the street, in the courtyard environment.
Maslov effortlessly graduated from eight classes, then in his life there was a school of FZU at the plant and the profession he had chosen as a "universal turner". Of course, he took an active part in various public organizations and numerous circles.
In 1938, Alexander joined the Komsomol. And after working days, he was actively involved in sports: skiing, skating, boxing, rowing. In the spring of 1940, Maslov underwent 120-hour drill pre-conscription training.
He studied with other guys to walk at a marching pace, own a rifle, stab with a bayonet, run in a gas mask. Passed the standards for the "Voroshilovsky shooter" badge and the 1st stage TRP.
On October 6, 1940, Alexander was drafted into the border troops of the NKVD of the USSR and sent to the 10th border detachment in Estonia. At that time, its commander was Major Sergei Mikhailovich Skorodumov.
He served as a private soldier Maslov as a signalman in the 3rd border commandant's office on the Ezel Island of the Moonsund archipelago. Climatic conditions on the coast of the Baltic Sea brought their own peculiarities to the border guard service. I had to master the secrets of carrying out service at new border sections, methods of detaining border violators.
Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the number of cases of violations of the border and territorial waters increased markedly. Every now and then Finnish violators tried to cross the border, fascist submarines and warships snooped around.
Maslov found out about the war immediately - exactly at 4 o'clock in the morning on June 22, 1941, receiving a coded message about the beginning of hostilities. On that fateful night, he was on duty at the radio station. And the next day, in a group of five people, he was thrown to catch the enemy airborne assault.
The fire fight with the detected enemies was fleeting. And the border fighters managed to easily destroy the scouts. But already on June 27, the border guards with battles began to retreat deep into the territory of Estonia to Kingisepp.
They retreated with battles, fighting for every stone and every settlement. Unfortunately, after a while they had to be left behind by the advancing fascists. So the border guards passed Staraya Russa, Pushkin and stood up to guard the army near Novgorod until July 5, 1941.
They caught crossbows, deserters, gunners of enemy aircraft. Once Maslov managed to see Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov at the command post, which was heading to the front line. After the surrender of Novgorod, they were redeployed to Tikhvin.
In June 1942, a year after the start of the war, on the Volkhov front near the village of Myasnoy Bor, Maslov participated in the withdrawal of the fighters of the 2nd Shock Army from the encirclement through a through-and-through corridor only a few hundred meters wide.
And the front-line cocked-hat letters flew
At the same time, Alexander Ilyich was accepted as a candidate for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. And the fighter Maslov did not forget about his mother and constantly wrote letters. Despite the long period, most of them have survived. Read these lines.
Letter dated July 10, 1941
Letter dated July 17, 1941
Letter dated 23 July 1941
Letter dated September 2, 1941
Letter dated October 18, 1941
Letter dated January 22, 1942
Letter dated July 9, 1942
The Fritz went on the offensive. We got a lift
Border guard Alexander Ilyich Maslov fought in the 175th Ural Division of the 70th Army of the NKVD troops, which took part in the Battle of Kursk. After grandiose battles and offensive movements, the fighter still wrote home to his mother.
Letter dated August 10, 1943. (Battle of Kursk)
Letter dated August 21, 1943
Many of the guys who were drafted together with Maslov in 1940 to the border troops from the Leninsky district of Moscow did not return home from the war.
Every year after the war, Alexander Ilyich, on Victory Day, came to Gorky Park to meet veterans of the Great Patriotic War. On this May day, it was a great joy for him to see among the front-line soldiers of the border guards of his draft and the 10th native border regiment.
Eternal memory to all of them!
