Scout Albert Gordeev served in Korea, took part in operations against samurai and received a medal from the hands of Kim Il Sung.
However, this is not at all what he considers to be the main thing in his biography. When our conversation ended, he added: "And be sure to write - I worked at the Mechanical Plant for 45 years!" People of the older generation will understand the pride that sounded in the voice of Albert Nikolaevich, but we, the young, are much more interested in what came before that …
ALBERT, THE SAME ALPHIN
Such an unusual name for the Mordovian hinterland (and Albert Nikolaevich was born in the village of Pyatina, Romodanovsky district), he received thanks to his father and amateur performances. Nikolai Gordeev played in a drama club at a village club, and he got the role of a fiery revolutionary. Italian. In the finale of the play, he, of course, died at the hands of the bloody bourgeoisie, finally shouting curses at the oppressors of the working people. And his name was either Albert, or Alberto. Gordeev Sr. was so imbued with the heroism of his role that he even decided to name his soon-born son by the name of this hero. And he named it.
Well, a revolution is a revolution, and in due time they carried the baby to church. Baptize, according to custom. Hearing the name of the newborn, the village priest raised his gray eyebrows and began leafing through the calendar. Naturally, he did not find a single Saint Albert there, but Nikolai Gordeev stood his ground: "I want it to be Albert, and that's it!" We found a compromise: Gordeev Jr. received the name Alfin in baptism.
Running a little ahead, let us say that the choice of the parent did not bring any particular inconvenience to Albert Nikolaevich in his life. Friends called simply Alik, and when the time came to be named by patronymic, everyone had already got used to foreign names.
VOLUNTEER. SUBMITTING COURSES
In August 1943, Alik turned 17, and in September he received a summons from the military registration and enlistment office. At that time he worked at a hemp plant and had a reservation from the front, but he himself asked to take it off. Father, at his request, went to the military commissar himself. And the reason was the simplest.
Alik has never been an exemplary child. As a child, he stormed the neighboring gardens with friends, and when he moved to Saransk, to study in the "craft", it was time for more high-profile cases. Then the whole city was talking about the antics of the punks from RU-2. But what can I say, which of us did not have sins at the age of 16. So the Gordeevs, at a family council, decided that it would be better for their son to volunteer for the front than sooner or later get into bad places.
The reservation was removed, and Alik was sent to the machine gunner courses at the city military registration and enlistment office. It is worth telling about them especially, this page of the history of the military Saransk is practically not studied. The cadets lived in the barracks (now this is the territory of the Oktyabrsky military registration and enlistment office), they were not given uniforms, they were allowed to go home on weekends to cheer up.
For two months a hundred recruits from all districts of Mordovia studied the regulations and materiel of the "Maxim machine gun". A couple of times a week we went out for live shooting. Alik was constantly lucky, he got to carry the "body" of the machine gun. It weighs only 8 kilos, and the machine weighs two pounds. And to go far: the landfill was in a ravine, in the area of the current Forest Park. It seems that a short section of a narrow-gauge railway was laid there even before the war. On the rails there is a trolley with an attached growth target, up to the firing line of 150 meters.
Each cadet was given 25 live rounds, which were to be stuffed with a cloth tape. Then the instructor-captain from the shelter pulled the rope tied to the trolley and gave the order to open fire. Although the machine gun is mounted on a heavy machine, the dispersion is still decent, especially on a moving target. If seven bullets hit the figure, it means that it was shot for the mark "good".
Two months later, the cadets were loaded into two freight cars and sent to Ruzayevka, to a collection point. They waited there for a week, while the train was completed, and again on the road. Where to? The escorting officers are silent. When we got to Kuibyshev, we realized that we were not yet at the front. We drove for a long time, more than a month. We got right up to the Primorsky Territory, where the headquarters of the 40th rifle division was located in the village of Smolyaninovo.
INTELLIGENCE. IN FULL LAYOUT
The fact that the soldiers from the rear units constantly asked to go to the front was written in hundreds of books. In Soviet times, this was explained by a patriotic impulse, although in reality the matter was much more prosaic. More terrible than death from a bullet was constant hunger. In the units stationed in the Far East, the soldiers received good American white bread, but in the cauldrons there was not the slightest sign of fat or any other broth. Got a sip of hot water called "meal soup" and the whole dinner. It is, of course, understandable: everything for the front, everything for victory. But I still want to eat until the stomach cramps.
It’s a strange thing: studying at the courses of machine gunners was not taken into account at all when distributing to units. After the course of the young soldier, Gordeev was appointed orderly to the commander of a training company. As Brave Soldier Schweik explained in his time: "The orderly is the one who runs errands." So Alik was running …
On March 20, 1944, the orderly Gordeev received an order to collect all the detached commanders from the company commander. With statutory zeal, he rushed to carry out the order, flew out the door with a bullet and crashed into some unfamiliar person. Kerosene, as well as food, was catastrophically short, it was dark in the corridor, but by the firm shoulder straps and his cap Gordeyev had unmistakably identified that he was an officer.
- Where are you in such a hurry, comrade cadet?
"To carry out the order of the company commander," Alik reported cheerfully, thinking to himself: "The guardhouse …".
- Your surname.
- Cadet Gordeev, - our hero answered less bravely, mentally adding: "… three days, no less."
- Continue to carry out the order.
Alik notified all the detached, returned to report on the completion, went into the company commander's room and was stupefied. The stranger he shot down turned out to be not only a major, but also the chief of intelligence of the 40th division. "Well, this one can stick in for five days," thought Gordeev, and suddenly he heard:
- Do you want to serve in intelligence, comrade cadet?
- Want.
So Alik got into the 5th separate motor reconnaissance group.
The Korean Chan-Yk-Khak lived in Vladivostok in his youth, knew Russian well and was a translator for our soldiers.
This is where the real combat training began. I had a chance to jump three times with a parachute, first from 100 meters, then from 500 and from 250. I didn't even have time to get scared when two sergeants grabbed him by the arms and just threw him out of the plane. With the rest, too, they did not stand on ceremony. Whether you want it or not … Come on !!! The carbine is on a wire, you don't even need to pull the ring. According to rumors, several people were killed, but Alik himself did not see the corpses.
Hand-to-hand combat was practically not taught: to destroy the enemy, each scout has a PPSh, a TT pistol and, in extreme cases, a Finn. But in order to take the "language" alive, you really need to know the methods of struggle. So we practiced throws, grabs and painful holds up to the eighth sweat and stretching.
And how many kilometers through the taiga had to go and run, catching up with the imaginary "enemy" - no one even considered. Full load - not less than 32 kilograms. Well, of course, a submachine gun, a pistol, two spare magazines for them, six "lemons", a sapper shovel, a flask, a gas mask, a helmet. The rest - cartridges in bulk in a duffel bag. And in the soldiers themselves, barely four pounds of hunger were left …
Nobody asked questions about why all this is needed (the war is coming to an end). Every morning at political studies, the soldiers were reminded that "there is another enemy lurking nearby - Japan", which is just waiting for the moment to attack.
"OFFICER". LIE AND WAIT WHEN IT RAPES
And the Red Army attacked first. In early May, the entire 40th division was alerted and led to the Manchurian border. We walked 30 kilometers through the taiga per day. From time to time we camped for two or three weeks, then again on the march. We reached the border on August 5, and the very next day the company commander gave the scouts a task: on the night of 7 to 8, cross the border and quietly cut out the Japanese border guard.
The border is three rows of barbed wire, between them there is an inconspicuous obstacle made of thin steel wire. If you get confused, then you yourself will not get out, moreover, you will cut everything that you can into your blood. However, the scouts, fortunately, did not have a chance to experience all these delights. The border guards had prepared a "window" for them in advance. We passed, bending down, as if along a corridor. They walked about five kilometers through the taiga without meeting a single living soul, so they could not fulfill the order "to cut …".
After another operation. The scouts are a privileged people: whoever wore what they wanted. Albert Gordeev is second from the left
But they got another task: to walk a few more kilometers and take the Officer's hill by storm. And this is a tough nut to crack: three reinforced concrete pillboxes, about twenty pillboxes, and each has a machine gun. And around the barbed wire in several rows, on iron pillars.
The assault began on August 9, at three o'clock in the morning (the sappers had cut through the entrances in advance). They were advancing on bellies. They crawled for almost an hour … Only 50 meters were left to the pillboxes, when the Japanese opened heavy fire on the scouts from all machine guns. Unshot soldiers buried their noses in the ground, waiting for their bullet. Alik was no exception. A little later it turned out that this was not the worst thing either. The worst are Japanese grenades. They hiss before exploding. And it is not clear - either nearby, or five meters away. Lie down and wait for it to explode.
The company commander, senior lieutenant Belyatko, decided to take it with a bang. He stood up to his full height, only had time to shout: "Guys, go ahead !!!" and immediately received a bullet in the head. Seeing such a thing, Sergeant Major Lysov gave the order to retreat.
They crawled into the hollow between the hills, leaving ten or twelve bodies in front of the pillboxes. They did not have time to recover, the division commander galloped up, ordered to take the "Officer" at any cost, and dashed back. Lysov, wounded in the arm, led the soldiers to a new assault. They crawled again, scraping off their elbows and knees, again lying under the bullets, listening to the hissing of Japanese grenades …
The hill was captured only on the third attempt. "Hooray!" did not shout, did not rise to the attack. They just crawled to the pillboxes, climbed onto them and lowered a dozen lemons into the ventilation pipe of each. A dull explosion was heard from under the ground, smoke poured from the embrasures. Log bunkers were also pelted with grenades.
Thirty killed were left on the slopes of the hill, and a few months later an order came to reward those who distinguished themselves. Sergeant Major Lysov received the Order of the Red Banner, one sergeant received the Order of the Red Star, and four soldiers, including Alik Gordeev, received medals "For Courage".
WEDDING THROUGH THE BORDER. UNDER THE FIRE "KATYUSH"
Immediately after the last assault on the hill, the platoon in which Gordeev served was ordered to move on, cross the Tumen River and find out which Japanese units were defending the city of the same name - Tumen.
The width of the river is only 20 meters, but the current is such that you go knee-deep and already knocks you down. It's good that the people in the platoon are experienced: the majority are Siberians, men of about forty years old. They conferred quickly, went away for an hour and brought from somewhere three horses in good-quality Japanese harness. Then they took the raincoat-tents, put stones on them, tied them up, and loaded them onto the horses. Then they sat down on each horse in two and into the water. In two passes, they crossed, although even with such a load, the horses were carried by twenty meters. So Albert Gordeev set foot on Korean soil.
On the other side, near some kind of tunnel, like a bomb shelter, they took a Japanese prisoner. He said that a whole division was stationed in Tumyn. They knocked on the radio command, and in response they heard the order: take cover. We barely managed to get into that tunnel when Katyushas started to work in the city. This is where it really got creepy. For three hours we watched the fiery arrows fly and howl across the sky, like the wind in a chimney, only a thousand times louder and more terrible.
The Japanese, as you can see, also suffered through fear, or interrupted of all. In short, Tumin was taken without a fight. When the scouts reached the city, our units were already there. And along the road for a good hundred meters - weapons and equipment abandoned by Japanese soldiers.
SAMURAI-DEATER
Catching up with the 40th division, the scouts on one of the roads saw craters from explosions, two dying out "Jeep" and several corpses of our soldiers. They decided to bypass this place and in Gaoliang (it is something like corn), about ten meters from the side of the road, they found a dead Japanese. His belly, tightly tied with something white, was widely cut across, and a short samurai sword was sticking out of the wound. Next to the suicide was a blasting machine with wires leading to the road.
Having done his job, the suicide bomber could easily hide from possible persecution in the high gaolian, but still preferred the honorable death of a samurai. Fanaticism is a terrible thing.
"MISSING"
On the outskirts of the city of Dunin (it was August 19 or 20), the scouts came under shelling. The shell hit the ground next to Gordeev. The fragments passed by, but the blast wave threw it aside with such force that he kissed his cheekbone with all his might to the hefty cobblestone. A full contusion, and even a dislocated jaw.
In the field hospital, Alik's jaw was put in place and left to lie down. But there was no need to recover: a few days later the Japanese massacred all the wounded in one of the tents at night. Gordeev decided not to tempt fate and rushed to catch up with his part.
Forty years later, when a certificate of injury was needed, Albert Nikolaevich sent a request to the Military Medical Archives. The answer read: “Yes, A. N. Gordeev. I was admitted to the BCP for a concussion, but after three days he disappeared without a trace. Himself "missing" at this time was walking towards the city of Kanko. A week later, the war ended.
STALINSKY SPETSNAZ
The Japanese surrendered, but the war was not over for the reconnaissance company. Every now and then, groups of Japanese broke into Korean villages, from among those who did not want to surrender. Even before that, they did not stand on ceremony with the Koreans, but then they began to atrogate at all. They killed, raped, took whatever they wanted.
Two or three times a week, the scouts were alerted and they went out to catch and destroy these unfinished samurai. Every time my soul felt cold: it’s a shame to die when everything is so quiet and calm. When our soldiers approached, the Japanese usually took up a perimeter defense in some house and prepared to fight to the end. If, through an interpreter, they were asked to surrender, they either refused or immediately started shooting.
It's good that in 1946, armored personnel carriers entered the company, there was no need to climb under the bullets. Armored personnel carriers surrounded the house and opened fire with heavy machine guns. And the Koreans have at home - you know what they are: in the corners there are four pillars on which the roof rests, between the pillars there is a reed frame coated with clay. The windows are made of thin slats, covered with paper, the doors are the same. In general, a minute later hundreds of huge holes were gaping in the walls.
Then they acted according to the scheme, which is familiar to the employees of the special forces today. They got up on both sides of the door, knocked it out with a kick, immediately exposed the barrels of the machine guns from behind the jamb and fanned out a couple of bursts over the entire disc. And there are 71 rounds in the disc. Only after that did they enter. With apprehension. There were several cases when some surviving Japanese found the strength to pull the trigger of an assault rifle for the last time (and many of them had trophy assault rifles - Soviet PPSh). He was immediately shot, but the killed Russian guy cannot be returned …
The last time we went to the operation, which is now called "cleansing", was in 1948. In three officially peaceful years, seven people died in clashes with the Japanese.
SURI ISO?
And so, in general, they lived well. The food was excellent, especially in comparison with the first year of service. Every day they gave out not only milk, eggs and thick porridge with meat, but also one hundred grams of alcohol. Those who lacked could have enough to eat in any local restaurant for a small part of their salary. And not only to eat …
Now you will smile. I mean men who do not mind drinking a glass or two on occasion. More than fifty years have passed, but the memory of Albert Nikolayevich has preserved the words most necessary for a soldier in any country. In this case, in Korean. Let's present them in the form of a standard dialogue:
- Suri iso? (Do you have vodka?)
- Oops. (No)
Or in another way:
- Suri iso?
- ISO. (There is)
- Chokam-chokam. (A little bit)
"Suri", as you already understood, is Korean vodka. It tastes so-so, and the strength is rather weak, only thirty degrees. Koreans pour it into small wooden cups.
Gordeev tried a lot of exotic appetizers, you can't remember everything. Oysters, for example, but the guy from Mordovia didn't like them. Not only are they alive, trembling under a fork, and they taste as fresh as empty jellied meat (they are actually supposed to be consumed with lemon, but who will teach our guys in a foreign country - author's note).
MEDAL FROM KIM-IR-SEN
In 1948, the "Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea" was issued on awarding Soviet soldiers with the medal "For the Liberation of Korea." The scout Albert Gordeev was also awarded her.
Received awards in Pyongyang, from the hands of the "great helmsman" Kim-Il-Sung. At the same time, Alik did not experience much trepidation. Korean like a Korean, short, stocky, in a paramilitary jacket. The eyes are slanted, the face is wide. That's all the experience.
"Drowned"
In 1949, by decree of Stalin, they began to return Japanese prisoners to their homeland. For their protection and escort, the 40th Infantry Division was redeployed to the Primorsky Territory.
Ships from Nakhodka sailed when to the island of Kyushu, when to Hokkaido. On the deck, the Japanese and our soldiers stood in groups, mixed. Yesterday's prisoners behaved with restraint, no one sang or danced for joy. It happened to catch unkind glances thrown from under the brows. And one day Gordeev saw how several Japanese, whispering about something, suddenly ran up to the side and jumped into the sea.
Not having had time to forget the suicide bomber, Alik decided that these, too, decided to commit suicide and rushed to the side along with the others. And I saw a strange picture. The Japanese sailed to the escort boats. Having picked them up, the boats turned around and went to the Soviet shores.
Later, one of the officers explained that our government, before leaving, offered to Japanese engineers and other qualified specialists to stay in the USSR. And not just work, but for a lot of money. Some agreed, but the question arose how to carry out this procedure so as not to violate the international conventions on the rights of prisoners of war. After all, if a Japanese on the Soviet coast says that he voluntarily wants to stay, the Japanese government may declare that he was forced to do so. And having set foot on Japanese soil, he automatically falls under the jurisdiction of his country and he may not be allowed to leave. Clever heads in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have found a solution: in neutral waters, a defector jumps into the sea and returns to the USSR on escort boats, which just have no right to go further.
JAPAN. APPLES IN PAPER
At the port of arrival, our soldiers were allowed to disembark and wander around the city for a while and look at Japanese life. True, in groups, and accompanied by an interpreter. The weapons, of course, were left on the ship.
Walking through the Japanese market for the first time, Alik concluded that the Japanese eat everything that moves. Most of the products on the shelves looked rather unappetizing, and some even made the stomach convulsively shrink. But he liked the Japanese peaches. Huge, with a fist, ate three or four pieces and ate.
What really impressed him was the hard work of the Japanese. Not a single uncultivated piece of land. And with what love they all cultivate. At one house, for example, Alik saw a small apple tree. All kind of crooked and not a single leaf. The caterpillars have eaten something. But the apples are hanging on the branches intact and each, mind you, each is neatly wrapped in rice paper.
From one such trip, shortly before demobilization, Gordeev brought a white kimono to his 7-year-old sister Lyusa. True, in Saransk, the overseas style was not appreciated, and the mother altered it in a simple dress.
