Born on March 3, 1908 in the village of Krest-Khaldzhai, now the Tomponsky District (Yakutia), in a peasant family. Primary education. He worked on a collective farm. From September 1941 in the Red Army. Since December of the same year at the front. Participant of the battles near Moscow, the liberation of the Kalinin, Smolensk, Vitebsk regions.
By June 1944, the sniper of the 234th Infantry Regiment (179th Infantry Division, 43rd Army, 1st Baltic Front) Sergeant F. M. Okhlopkov destroyed 429 enemy soldiers and officers from a sniper rifle.
On May 6, 1965, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for courage and military valor displayed in battles with enemies.
After the war he was demobilized. He returned to his homeland, was an employee. In 1954 - 1968 he worked at the "Tomponsky" state farm. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd convocation. He died on May 28, 1968.
Awarded with the orders: Lenin, Red Banner, Patriotic War 2 nd degree, Red Star (twice); medals. The name of the Hero was given to the state farm "Tomponsky", streets in the city of Yakutsk, the village of Khandyga and the village of Cherkekh (Yakutia), as well as a ship of the Ministry of the Navy.
The book by DV Kusturov "Sergeant without a miss" is devoted to the combat activities of F. M. Okhlopkov (you can read it on the website - "https://militera.lib.ru" - "Military literature").
MAGIC ARROW
Passing by the club in the village of Krest - Khaldzhay, a puny, short, elderly worker of the "Tomponsky" state farm heard a fragment of a radio broadcast of the latest news. It came to his ears: "… for the exemplary fulfillment of combat missions of the command on the fronts of the struggle and the courage and heroism shown at the same time to confer the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal to reserve sergeant Okhlopkov Fedor Matveyevich …"
The worker slowed down, stopped. His surname is Okhlopkov, his first name is Fedor, his patronymic is Matveyevich, in the military card in the column "Rank" it is written: sergeant of the reserve.
It was May 7, 1965 - 20 years since the end of the war, and although the worker knew that he had been presented to a high rank a long time ago, without stopping, he walked past the club, through a village dear to his heart, in which almost his entire half-century life was rustling.
He fought and received his own: two Orders of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War and the Red Banner, several medals. Until now, his 12 wounds are whining, and people who understand a lot in such matters equate each wound with an order.
- Okhlopkov Fedor Matveyevich … And there is such a coincidence: the surname, and the name, and the patronymic, and the title - everything came together, - smiled the worker, going out to the rapids Aldan.
He sank to the shore, covered with young spring grass, and, looking at the hills overgrown with green taiga moss, slowly went into the distant past … He saw himself as if from the side, through the eyes of another person. Here he is, 7-year-old Fedya, crying over the grave of his mother, at the age of 12 he buries his father and, after graduating from the 3rd grade, leaves school forever … Here he, Fedor Okhlopkov, diligently uproots the forest for arable land, saws and chops wood for steamboat furnaces enjoying his skill, mows hay, carpentries, catches perches in lake ice holes, places crossbows for hares and traps for foxes in the taiga.
An alarming, windy day of the beginning of the war is coming, when everything familiar and dear should have been said goodbye, and maybe forever.
Okhlopkov was drafted into the army at the beginning of winter. In the village of Krest - Khaljay, the soldiers were seen off with speeches and music. It was cold. Over 50 degrees below zero. Salty tears of his wife froze on her cheeks and rolled like a shot …
It is not so far from the Krest - Khaldjay to the capital of the autonomous republic. A week later, traveling through the taiga on dogs, those drafted into the army were in Yakutsk.
Okhlopkov did not stay in the city, and together with his brother Vasily and fellow villagers went by truck through Aldan to the Bolshoi Never railway station. Together with his fellow countrymen - hunters, farmers and fishermen - Fedor got into the Siberian division.
It was hard for the Yakuts, Evenks, Odul and Chukchi to leave their republic, which is 10 times larger than Germany in area. It was a pity to part with our wealth: with collective farm herds of deer, with 140 million hectares of Daurian larch, sprinkled with glitter of forest lakes, with billions of tons of coking coal. Everything was expensive: the blue artery of the Lena River, and gold veins, and mountains with loaches and stony placers. But what to do ? We must hurry. German hordes were advancing on Moscow, Hitler raised a knife over the heart of the Soviet people.
With Vasily, who was also in the same division, we agreed to stick together and asked the commander to give them a machine gun. The commander promised, and for two weeks while getting to Moscow, he patiently explained the aiming device and its parts to the brothers. The commander, with his eyes closed, in full view of the enchanted soldiers, deftly dismantled and assembled the car. Both Yakuts learned how to handle a machine gun on the way. Of course, they understood that there was still a lot to be mastered before they became real machine gunners: they had to practice shooting over their advancing soldiers, shooting at targets - suddenly appearing, quickly hiding and moving, learning to hit aircraft and tanks. The commander assured that all this will come with time, in the experience of battles. Combat is the most important school for a soldier.
The commander was Russian, but before graduating from the military school, he lived in Yakutia, worked in gold and diamond mines and knew well that the sharp eye of a Yakut sees far away, does not lose animal tracks either in the grass, or on moss, or on stones and in terms of hitting accuracy, there are few shooters in the world equal to the Yakuts.
We arrived in Moscow on a frosty morning. In a column, with rifles behind them, they passed through Red Square, past the Lenin Mausoleum and went to the front.
The 375th Rifle Division, formed in the Urals and poured into the 29th Army, moved towards the front. The 1243rd regiment of this division included Fedor and Vasily Okhlopkov. The commander with two cubes on his overcoat's buttonholes kept his word: he gave them a light machine gun for two. Fedor became the first number, Vasily - the second.
While in the forests of the Moscow region, Fyodor Okhlopkov saw how fresh divisions approached the front line, tanks and artillery were concentrated. It looked like a crushing blow was being prepared after heavy defensive battles. Forests and groves revived.
The wind carefully bandaged the bloody, wounded earth with clean strips of snow, diligently sweeping up the naked ulcers of the war. Blizzards raged, covering the trenches and trenches of the frozen fascist warriors with a white shroud. Day and night, the piercing wind sang to them a mournful funeral song …
In early December, the divisional commander, General N. A.
In the first line of their battalion, the Yakut brothers ran across, often burrowing into the prickly snow, giving short slanting bursts of green enemy overcoats. They managed to defeat several fascists, but then they still did not keep a score of revenge. They tried their strength, checked the accuracy of the hunting eyes. For two days without a break, a heated battle with the participation of tanks and aircraft lasted with varying success, and for two days no one closed his eyes for a minute. The division managed to cross the Volga across the ice broken by shells, chasing enemies for 20 miles.
Pursuing the retreating enemy, our soldiers liberated the burned down villages of Semyonovskoye, Dmitrovskoye, occupied the northern outskirts of the city of Kalinin engulfed in fire. The "Yakut" frost was raging; There was a lot of firewood around, but there was no time to light a fire, and the brothers warmed their hands on the warmed-up barrel of a machine gun. After a long retreat, the Red Army advanced. The most pleasant sight for a soldier is the running enemy. In two days of fighting, the regiment, in which the Okhlopkov brothers served, destroyed over 1000 fascists, defeated the headquarters of two German infantry regiments, captured rich trophies of war: cars, tanks, cannons, machine guns, hundreds of thousands of cartridges. Both Fedor and Vasily, just in case, shoved the trophy "Parabellum" into the pockets of their greatcoats.
The victory came at a high price. The division lost many soldiers and officers. The commander of the regiment, Captain Chernozersky, died the death of the brave; An explosive bullet from a German sniper struck down Vasily Okhlopkov. He fell to his knees, buried his face in the prickly snow, like nettles. He died in the arms of his brother, easily, without suffering.
Fyodor began to cry. Standing without a hat over the cooling body of Vasily, he swore an oath to avenge his brother, promised to open his own account of the destroyed fascists to the dead.
At night, sitting in a hastily dug-out dugout, the division commissar, Colonel S. Kh. Aynutdinov, wrote about this oath in a political report. This was the first mention of Fyodor Okhlopkov in war documents …
Informing about the death of his brother, Fedor wrote about his oath to the Cross - Haldzhai. His letter was read in all three villages that make up the village council. The fellow villagers approved the courageous determination of their fellow countryman. The oath was approved by his wife Anna Nikolaevna and son Fedya.
Fyodor Matveyevich recalled all this on the bank of the Aldan, watching how the spring wind, like flocks of sheep, drives white ice floes to the west. The hum of a car tore him from his thoughts, the secretary of the district party committee drove up.
- Well, dear, congratulations. - Jumped out of the car, hugged, kissed.
The decree, read out on the radio, concerned him. The name of his government equated the names of 13 Yakuts - Heroes of the Soviet Union: S. Asamov, M. Zhadeikin, V. Kolbunov, M. Kosmachev, K. Krasnoyarov, A. Lebedev, M. Lorin, V. Pavlov, F. Popov, V. Streltsov, N. Chusovsky, E. Shavkunov, I. Shamanov. He is the 14th Yakut marked with the "Golden Star".
A month later, in the meeting room of the Council of Ministers, in which a poster hung: "To the people - to the hero - aikhal!" Okhlopkov was awarded the Motherland award.
Thanking the audience, he briefly spoke about how the Yakuts fought … Memories flooded into Fyodor Matveyevich, and he seemed to see himself in the war, but not in the 29th army, but in the 30th, to which his division was subordinated. Okhlopkov heard the speech of the commander of the army, General Lelyushenko. The commander asked the commanders to find well-aimed shooters, to train snipers from them. So Fedor became a sniper. The work was slow, but by no means boring: the danger made it exciting, demanded a rare fearlessness, excellent orientation in the terrain, sharp eyes, composure, iron restraint.
On March 2, April 3 and May 7, Okhlopkov was wounded, but each time he remained in the ranks. A taiga resident, he understood the rural pharmacopoeia, knew the healing properties of herbs, berries, leaves, knew how to heal diseases, possessed secrets passed down from generation to generation. Gritting his teeth in pain, he burned the wounds with the fire of a resinous pine torch and did not go to the medical battalion.
* * *
In early August 1942, the troops of the Western and Kalinin Fronts broke through the enemy's defenses and began to attack on the Rzhevsky and Gzhatsko-Vyazemsky directions. The 375th division, going at the forefront of the offensive, took on the main blow of the enemy. In the battles near Rzhev, the advance of our troops was delayed by the Nazi armored train "Herman Goering", plying along a high railway embankment. The divisional commander decided to block the armored train. A group of daredevils was created. Okhlopkov asked to be included. After waiting for the night, putting on camouflage robes, the soldiers crawled towards the goal. All approaches to the railway were illuminated by the enemy with rockets. The Red Army men had to lie on the ground for a long time. Below, against the background of the gray sky, like a mountain ridge, the black silhouette of an armored train was visible. Smoke billowed over the locomotive; the wind carried its bitter smell to the ground. The soldiers crept closer and closer. Here is the long-awaited embankment.
Lieutenant Sitnikov, in command of the group, gave a prearranged signal. The soldiers jumped to their feet and threw grenades and fuel bottles at steel boxes; Sighing heavily, the armored train took off in the direction of Rzhev, but an explosion rang out in front of it. The train tried to leave for Vyazma, but even there the brave sappers blew up the canvas.
From the base car, the team of the armored train lowered new rails, trying to restore the destroyed track, but under well-aimed machine gun fires, having lost several people killed, they had to return under the protection of the iron walls. Okhlopkov then killed half a dozen fascists.
For several hours a group of daredevils kept a resisting armored train without maneuver under fire. At noon, our bombers flew in, knocked out a steam locomotive, and threw a armored carriage derailed. A group of daredevils saddled the railroad and held out until a battalion came to help it.
The battles near Rzhev took on a fierce character. The artillery destroyed all the bridges and plowed the roads. It was a stormy week. It was raining like a bucket, making it difficult for tanks and guns to advance. The entire burden of military suffering fell on the infantry.
The temperature of the battle is measured by the number of human casualties. A short document has been preserved in the archives of the Soviet Army:
“From 10 to 17 August, the 375th division lost 6,140 people killed and wounded. The 1243rd regiment distinguished itself in an offensive impulse. Its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ratnikov, died a heroic death in front of his troops. platoons, foremen - companies."
… Okhlopkov's squad was advancing in the front line. In his opinion, this was the most suitable place for a sniper. By flashes of flame, he quickly found enemy machine guns and forced them to silence, unmistakably falling into narrow embrasures and cracks.
On the evening of August 18, during an attack on a small, half-burnt village, Fyodor Okhlopkov was seriously wounded for the 4th time. Bleeding, the sniper fell and lost consciousness. Around the chalk there was an iron blizzard, but two Russian soldiers, risking their own lives, dragged the wounded Yakut out from under the fire to the edge of the grove, under the cover of bushes and trees. The orderlies took him to the medical battalion, and from there Okhlopkov was taken to the city of Ivanovo, to the hospital.
By order for the troops of the Kalinin Front No. 0308 dated August 27, 1942, signed by the front commander, Colonel General Konev, the commander of the submachine gun squad Fyodor Matveyevich Okhlopkov was awarded the Order of the Red Star. The award list for this order says: "Okhlopkov, with his bravery, more than once in difficult moments of battle, stopped alarmists, inspired the soldiers, led them into battle again."
* * *
Okhlopkov, who recovered after being wounded, was sent to the 234th regiment of the 178th division.
The new division knew that Okhlopkov was a sniper. The battalion commander was delighted at his appearance. The enemy has a well-aimed shooter. During the day with 7 shots, he "removed" 7 of our soldiers. Okhlopkov was ordered to destroy an invulnerable enemy sniper. At dawn, the magic shooter went out to hunt. German snipers chose positions at a height, Okhlopkov preferred the ground.
The winding line of German trenches turned yellow at the edge of the tall forest. The sun rose. Lying in a trench with his own hand dug and camouflaged at night, Fyodor Matveyevich looked at the unfamiliar landscape with the naked eye, figured out where his enemy might be, and then, through an optical device, began to study individual, unremarkable areas of the terrain. An enemy sniper could take a fancy to a shelter on a tree trunk.
But which one? Behind the German trenches, a tall ship-borne forest gleamed blue - hundreds of trunks, and each could have a dexterous, experienced enemy who had to be outwitted. The forest landscape is devoid of clear outlines, trees and shrubs merge into a solid green mass and it is difficult to focus attention on anything. Okhlopkov examined all the trees from roots to crown through binoculars. The German shooter most likely chose a place on a pine tree with a forked trunk. The sniper glared at the suspicious tree, examining every branch on it. The mysterious silence became ominous. He was looking for a sniper who was looking for him. The winner is the one who first detects his opponent and, ahead of him, pulls the trigger.
As agreed, at 8:12 am, in a trench 100 meters from Okhlopkov, a soldier's helmet was lifted on a bayonet. A shot rang out from the forest. But the flash could not be detected. Okhlopkov continued to watch the suspicious pine tree. For a moment I saw a reflection of the sun near the trunk, as if someone had directed a speck of a mirror ray onto the bark, which immediately disappeared, as if it had never existed.
"What could it be?" - thought the sniper, but no matter how closely he looked, he could not find anything. And suddenly, in the place where a light speck flashed, like the shadow of a leaf, a black triangle appeared. The keen eye of a taiga hunter through binoculars made out a sock, to the nickel shine of a polished boot …
"Cuckoo" lurked in a tree. It is necessary, without giving out oneself, to wait patiently and, as soon as the sniper opens up, to kill him with one bullet … After an unsuccessful shot, the fascist will either disappear, or, having found him, will engage in single combat and open return fire. In Okhlopkov's rich practice, he rarely succeeded in taking aim at the same target twice. Every time after a miss, you had to look for days, track down, wait …
Half an hour after the shot of the German sniper, at the place where the helmet was lifted, a glove appeared, one, then the second. From the sidelines, one might think that the wounded man was trying to get up, grabbing the breastwork of the trench with his hand. The enemy pecked at the bait, took aim. Okhlopkov saw part of his face appearing among the branches and the black point of the rifle muzzle. Two shots rang out simultaneously. A fascist sniper flew headfirst to the ground.
During a week in the new division, Fedor Okhlopkov sent 11 fascists to the next world. This was reported from observation posts by witnesses of extraordinary duels.
On October 27, in the battle for the village of Matveyevo, Okhlopkov destroyed 27 fascists.
The air was filled with the smell of battle. The enemy counterattacked with tanks. Squeezing into a shallow, hastily dug trench, Okhlopkov cold-bloodedly shot at the viewing slots of the formidable machines and hit. In any case, two tanks heading straight for him turned, and the third stopped about 30 meters away, and the arrows set it on fire with bottles with a combustible mixture. The fighters who saw Okhlopkov in battle were amazed at his luck, spoke about him with love and joke:
- Fedya as an insured … Two-core …
They did not know that invulnerability was given to the Yakut by caution and labor, he preferred to dig 10 meters of trenches than 1 meter of a grave.
He went out hunting at night: he shot at the lights of cigarettes, at voices, at the ringing of weapons, bowlers and helmets.
In November 1942, the commander of the regiment, Major Kovalev, presented the sniper for the award, and the command of the 43rd Army awarded him the second Order of the Red Star. Then Fyodor Matveyevich became a communist. Taking the party card from the head of the political department, he said:
- Joining the party is my second oath of allegiance to the Motherland.
His name increasingly began to appear on the pages of the military press. In mid-December 1942, the army newspaper "Defender of the Fatherland" wrote on the front page: "99 enemies were exterminated by a Yakut Okhlopkov sniper." Front newspaper "Forward to the enemy!" put Okhlopkov as an example for all the front snipers. The "Sniper's Memo" issued by the political administration of the front summarized his experience, offered his advice …
* * *
The division in which Okhlopkov served was transferred to the 1st Baltic Front. The situation has changed, the landscape has changed. Going hunting every day, from December 1942 to July 1943, Okhlopkov killed 159 fascists, many of them snipers. In numerous fights with German snipers, Okhlopkov was never wounded. 12 wounds and 2 contusions were received by him in offensive and defensive battles, when everyone fought against everyone. Each wound undermined health, took away strength, but he knew: the candle shines on people, burning itself.
The enemy quickly made out the confident handwriting of the magic shooter, who put his vengeful signature on the forehead or chest of his soldiers and officers. Over the positions of the regiment, German pilots dropped leaflets, in them there was a threat: "Okhlopkov, surrender. You have no salvation! We'll take it, dead or alive!"
I had to lie motionless for hours. This state was conducive to introspection and reflection. He lay and saw himself in the Cross - Khaldzhai, on the rocky bank of the Aldan, in his family, with his wife and son. He had an amazing ability to go back in time and wander in it along the paths of memory, as if in a familiar forest.
Okhlopkov is laconic and does not like to talk about himself. But what he keeps silent out of modesty, the documents finish. The award list for the Order of the Red Banner, which he was awarded for the battles in the Smolensk region, says:
"While in the infantry battle formations at an altitude of 237.2, at the end of August 1943, a group of snipers led by Okhlopkov bravely and courageously repulsed 3 counterattacks of numerically superior forces. Sergeant Okhlopkov was shell-shocked, but did not leave the battlefield, continued to remain on the occupied lines and lead a group of snipers."
In a bloody street battle, Fyodor Matveyevich carried out from under the fire of his fellow countrymen - soldiers Kolodeznikov and Elizarov, seriously wounded by mine fragments. They sent letters home, describing everything as it was, and Yakutia learned about the feat of her faithful son.
The army newspaper "Defender of the Fatherland", closely following the sniper's success, wrote:
"F. M. Okhlopkov was in the fiercest battles. He has the sharp eye of a hunter, the firm hand of a miner and a big warm heart … The German, taken by him at gunpoint, is a dead German."
Another interesting document has survived:
"The combat characteristics of the sniper sergeant Okhlopkov Fedor Matveyevich. Member of the CPSU (b). Being in the 1st battalion of the 259th rifle regiment from January 6 to 23, 1944, Comrade Okhlopkov destroyed 11 Nazi invaders. With Okhlopkov's appearance in the area of our defense, the enemy does not show activity of sniper fire, day work and walking stopped. Commander of the 1st battalion Captain I. Baranov. January 23, 1944."
The command of the Soviet Army developed the sniper movement. Fronts, armies, divisions were proud of their well-aimed marksmen. Fyodor Okhlopkov had an interesting correspondence. Snipers from all fronts shared their combat experience.
For example, Okhlopkov advised the young man Vasily Kurka: "Imitate less … Look for your own methods of struggle … Find new positions and new ways of disguising … Do not be afraid to go behind enemy lines … You cannot chop with an ax where you need a needle … You have to be round in a pumpkin, in a pipe long … Until you see the exit, do not enter … Get the enemy at any distance."
Such advice was given by Okhlopkov to his numerous students. He took them with him on the hunt. The student saw with his own eyes the subtleties and difficulties of fighting a cunning enemy.
- In our business, everything is good: a lined tank, a hollow of a tree, a frame of a well, a stack of straw, a stove of a burnt hut, a dead horse …
Once he pretended to be killed and all day lay motionless in a no-man's land in a completely open field, among the silent bodies of the slain soldiers, touched by the fumes of decay. From this unusual position, he knocked down an enemy sniper who was buried under an embankment in a drainpipe. The enemy soldiers did not even notice where the unexpected shot came from. The sniper lay until the evening and, under cover of darkness, crawled back to his own.
Somehow Okhlopkov was brought a present from the front commander - a narrow and long box. He eagerly opened the package and froze with delight when he saw a brand new sniper rifle with a telescopic sight.
There was a day. Sun was shining. But Okhlopkov was impatient to upgrade his weapons. Ever since yesterday evening, he noticed a fascist observation post on the chimney of a brick factory. Crawling reached the outposts of the outposts. Having smoked with the soldiers, he rested and, merging with the color of the earth, crawled even further. The body was numb, but he lay motionless for 3 hours and, choosing a convenient moment, removed the observer from one shot. The account of Okhlopkov's revenge for his brother was growing. Here are excerpts from the divisional newspaper: as of March 14, 1943 - 147 killed fascists; on July 20 - 171; on October 2 - 219; on January 13, 1944 - 309; on March 23 - 329; on April 25 - 339; on June 7 - 420.
On June 7, 1944, the commander of the Guards regiment, Major Kovalev, presented Sergeant Okhlopkov to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The award list then did not receive its completion. Some intermediate authority between the regiment and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR did not approve it. All the soldiers in the regiment knew about this document, and although there was no decree yet, the appearance of Okhlopkov in the trenches was often met with the song: "The Hero's golden fire burns on his chest …"
In April 1944, the publishing house of the army newspaper "Defender of the Fatherland" issued a poster. It depicts a portrait of a sniper, written in large letters: "Okhlopkov". Below is a poem by the famous military poet Sergei Barents, dedicated to the Yakut sniper.
In single combat, Okhlopkov shot 9 more snipers. The revenge score reached a record number - 429 killed Nazis!
In the battles for the city of Vitebsk on June 23, 1944, a sniper, supporting the assault group, received a through wound in the chest, was sent to the rear hospital and never returned to the front.
* * *
In the hospital, Okhlopkov did not lose touch with his comrades, followed the successes of his division, confidently making its way to the west. Both the joys of victories and the sorrows of losses reached him. In September, his student Burukchiev was killed by an explosive bullet, and a month later his friend, the famous sniper Kutenev with 5 riflemen knocked out 4 tanks and, wounded, unable to resist, was crushed by the 5th tank. He learned that frontline snipers had killed over 5,000 fascists.
By the spring of 1945, the magic shooter had recovered and, as part of the combined battalion of the 1st Baltic Front, led by the front commander, General of the Army I. Kh. Bagramyan, took part in the Victory Parade in Moscow on Red Square.
From Moscow Okhlopkov went home to his family, to Krest - Haldzhai. For some time he worked as a miner, and then at the "Tomponsky" state farm, living among fur breeders, plowmen, tractor drivers and foresters.
The great era of communist construction counted off years equal to decades. Yakutia, the land of permafrost, was changing. More and more ships appeared on its mighty rivers. Only the old people, lighting their pipes, occasionally recalled the off-road edge cut off from the whole world, the pre-revolutionary Yakutsk highway, the Yakut exile, the rich - toyons. Everything that interfered with life has sunk into eternity forever.
Two peaceful decades have passed. All these years Fyodor Okhlopkov worked selflessly, raised children. His wife, Anna Nikolaevna, gave birth to 10 sons and daughters and became a mother - a heroine, and Fyodor Matveyevich knew: it is easier to string a bag of millet on a string than to raise one child. He also knew that the reflection of the glory of the parents falls on the children.
The Soviet Committee of War Veterans invited the Hero of the Soviet Union Okhlopkov to Moscow. There were meetings and memories. He visited the site of the battles and seemed to have gone into his youth. Where fires blazed, where stone melted and iron burned under fire, a new collective farm life flourished.
Among the great many graves of heroes who fell in the battles for Moscow, Fyodor Matveyevich found a neat mound, which schoolchildren are looking after - a place of eternal rest for his brother Vasily, whose body has long become a part of the great Russian land. Taking off his hat, Fyodor stood for a long time over a place dear to his heart.
Okhlopkov visited Kalinin, bowed to the ashes of the commander of his division, General N. A. Sokolov, who taught him ruthlessness towards the enemies of the Motherland.
The famous sniper spoke at the Kalinin House of Officers in front of the soldiers of the garrison, recalled a lot that had become forgotten.
- I tried to honestly fulfill my duty to the Motherland … I hope that you, the heirs of all our glory, will worthily continue the work of your fathers - this is how Okhlopkov finished his speech.
Like kryzhins carried away to the Arctic Ocean, the time has passed when Yakutia was considered a land cut off from the whole world. Okhlopkov left for Moscow, and from there he went home on a jet plane and after 9 hours of flight he found himself in Yakutsk.
So life itself brought the distant, once roadless republic with its people, its heroes closer to the hot heart of the Soviet Union.
* * *
Increasingly, the severe wounds received by Fyodor Matveyevich in the war made themselves felt. On May 28, 1968, the inhabitants of the village of Krest - Khaljay accompanied the famous countryman to his last journey.
To perpetuate the blessed memory of F. M. Okhlopkov, his name was given to his native state farm in the Tompon region of the Yakut ASSR and a street in the city of Yakutsk.
(Article by S. Borzenko was published in the collection "In the name of the Motherland")
