The most difficult thing is to write about something that seems to be known to everyone, but at the same time is unknown to anyone. There are such topics. And they appeared, alas, in the "light of the decisions of the party and government" of the USSR after the war. Without any logic, in our opinion.
One of these topics is Siberian divisions, brigades, separate regiments and battalions.
Almost every city that has been affected by the war has streets named after Siberian divisions. That's right, with the mention of the word "Siberian" in the title. The older generation, those who personally met with the participants in the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War, remember very well how, for example, the defenders of Moscow answered the question of who defended the capital from the Germans. Siberians and militias!
However, if you try to find out about the Siberian divisions in the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense or in the memoirs of our military leaders, you will not find such information. The word "Siberian" has been blotted out and replaced by a simple listing of the numbers of units or units.
The documents in the Central Archives are classified, and they are classified indefinitely! They say it was on the personal instructions of Comrade Stalin. Even in the award department there is no information about the affiliation of the military personnel to the Siberian divisions. In short, we could not find an official confirmation of the fighting reputation of the Siberian warriors. Most likely, there are simply no such documents.
Meanwhile, immediately after the declaration of war, tens, hundreds of thousands of volunteers came to the military registration and enlistment offices of Siberian cities. Workers, peasants, hunters, residents of distant taiga settlements came … Hundreds of thousands of statements. As citizens, as men, Siberians showed themselves no worse than other regions.
Meanwhile, where to go? The European part in 1941 was rapidly becoming an occupied territory. And if there was a calculation, then yes, for the inhabitants of the Urals and Siberia. This is logic comparable to that of a 152mm projectile.
The first mention of Siberians in German (!) Archives refers to the famous counter-offensive near Yelnya. The Germans, unlike us, kept the documents as they were originally. That is why the story about the defenders of Moscow should begin with the counteroffensive at Yelnya.
Many readers are aware of this operation. Many have read about her in the memoirs of Marshal Zhukov. But only a few have read the first edition of these memoirs. One-piece, with a red and white dust jacket. The knowledge of the majority is limited to the official history course and the Internet historical surrogate.
Remember what pops up in your memory when you mention this operation? The first counterattack of the Red Army in the war. Birthplace of the Soviet Guard. First use of Katyusha rocket launchers. A well-thought-out operation of the future Marshal of Victory …
But, if you carefully look at the reports of the Sovinforbureau of that time, an interesting detail becomes clear. Victory reports and summaries of units and formations ended in 3 days! And the operation itself suddenly turned into just an episode of the Smolensk battle. This is how it is interpreted even today.
Everyone knows that the operation was carried out by the forces of two armies. 24th and 43rd. But during the offensive, the 43rd Army did not achieve significant successes. She was forced to take up the defensive position. But the 24th really fought successfully. But the fate of this army is tragic.
So, the 24th Army was formed in Novosibirsk. Moreover, the army included not recruits, but reserve soldiers. Those who were trained even sometimes had combat experience (Khasan and Khalkhin-Gol). The army for the offensive consisted of 7 rifle divisions, a division of the people's militia, two tank divisions, a motorized division, ten artillery regiments of corps artillery (122-mm cannons of the 1931 model, 152-mm howitzers of the 1934 model, 203-mm howitzers of the model 1931), regiments of the RGK and PTO.
The army inflicted significant losses on the Germans. Threw them away from Moscow for tens of kilometers to the west. However, as often happened at the beginning of the war, the command was unable to provide the army with reserves. In fact, the 24th Army operated autonomously. About which the German intelligence officers reported almost immediately.
Then the Germans acted according to the algorithm that had developed in the first months of the war. Tank strikes, cutting the army into parts and encirclement in cauldrons. In this situation, after the loss of coordination of actions, the soldiers of the Red Army used to surrender in subunits and units. It remained only to disarm and send to the camp.
And here for the first time Siberians are mentioned in the report of one of the regimental commanders. "These are not Red Army men, they are Siberians." The Germans had no experience in contact battles with Siberian units. And they acted exactly as before. A line of soldiers advanced towards the Russian positions, firing and pouring machine-gun fire from the flanks.
However, as soon as the ranks approached the Russian positions, well-organized, and most importantly, well-aimed fire from rifles and carbines followed. Even where the Nazis reached their positions, terrible hand-to-hand fights ensued. Not only bayonets were used, but also sapper shovels, small arms, knives …
Having lost more than 20,000 people in these attacks, the Germans refused to use infantry and destroyed the Siberians with aircraft, artillery and mortars. Infantry and tanks were used for a reinforced blockade.
But even under these conditions, a small number of Soviet soldiers managed to break out of the cauldron.
But back to the battle for Moscow. Was the number of Siberians there really enough to talk about their contribution to the victory near Moscow? So the numbers. In 1941 Moscow was defended by 17 Siberian divisions, 2 rifle brigades, separate regiments and battalions of skiers. Yes, yes, it was these individual ski battalions that you could see on the film of the 1941 parade in Moscow, and the Germans were in their rear before the next nightmare.
For exceptional services in the defense of the capital, the 32nd, 78th, 82nd, 93rd, 119th, 133rd rifle divisions, 29th and 79th rifle brigades were reorganized into guards.
I will not describe the combat episodes from the life of all these formations and units. We are talking about the features of the fighting reputation of Siberians. It is enough to tell about one compound that is known to most Russians. At least based on the well-known movie "One Day of the Division Commander".
Almost everyone who has ever driven along the Volokolamskoe highway at least once in their life has seen a memorial complex with an eternal flame and a monument to the defenders of Moscow at the 41st kilometer. The eternal flame is now located exactly in the place that the Germans reached in 1941. Exactly at the place from which the offensive of our troops began.
There is also a mass grave of Soviet soldiers who died at this turn. And the detached grave of their commander - twice hero of the Soviet Union, General of the Army Afanasy Pavlantievich Beloborodov. The commander bequeathed to bury himself next to his 41-year-old soldiers.
Colonel Beloborodov's 78th rifle division arrived in 36 trains near Moscow in October 1941. And immediately it was directed to the most dangerous direction - the Istra. 14, 5 thousand Siberians against the reinforced (22 thousand) SS division "Reich". It was this division, famous in France and Poland, that was supposed to take Moscow.
Talking about the counter-offensive at Yelnya, I mentioned the armament of the German and Soviet units. The superiority of the Germans was overwhelming. That is why, despite the heroism and dedication of the soldiers of the Red Army, the Red Army retreated. Everyone retreated, including the Siberians.
However, the harsh life taught Siberians to search for extraordinary solutions. German officers and generals knew our combat manuals quite well. Therefore, they could predict the actions of our commanders in various situations. Beloborodov acted differently. He acted using the strengths of his own soldiers.
I will tell you two episodes from the combat biography of the 78th division.
Roadside villages are usually located on both sides of the highway. This is how the village of Medvedevo was located. It was there that another war began for the Germans. If there was a counteroffensive near Yelnya, then in Medvedevo the Germans simply began to beat. Cruel, evil, sparing neither oneself nor the enemy. Beat so that the memory of such battles was preserved by the German soldiers until the end of their lives. Who managed to survive there. There were some, I must say.
To begin with, I will quote the military correspondent who was next to Boloborodov these days, Evgeny Zakharovich Vorobyov:
The fact is that during the day, taking advantage of firepower, the Germans occupied half of the village. The one off the highway. In the morning, an attack on the other half was being prepared. And the outcome of this attack was predictable. And the division commander decided to carry out a bayonet attack at night!
Only in this case, the Germans could not use machine guns, mortars and tanks. The odds were leveled.
At night, silently, without shouting "Hurray!", Without making noise, the Siberians crossed the highway and stabbed the Germans with bayonets. By morning the German battalion did not exist. The village was liberated.
Another episode, which is beautifully played in the film I named, also took place in life. But in a slightly different form. Here it is necessary to listen to General Beloborodov himself.
Moreover, the division went on the offensive in a new status. Here is an assessment of the actions of the Siberians from the then army commander, Lieutenant General Rokossovsky:
And one more quote. People's Commissariat of Defense:
I don't know if I was able to explain the essence of the Siberian character. The essence of the concept of "fighting reputation of Siberians". Moreover, I do not in the least belittle the heroism of other formations and units. Suffice it to recall the feat of the militia, which we wrote about earlier.
But you must admit that the Siberians really fought a little bit differently. A little bit differently. A little bit angrier and reckless. The Siberians did not like and do not like to run away from danger.
And it was not for nothing that the Germans in the official documents of the war times necessarily cited the definition "Siberian", speaking of the combat capabilities of the compound. The Germans also tested the steadfastness of the Siberians in other battles. But more on that in the next part.
