The military history of our city: pants for Budyonny from Rogachev and the Gomel garrison - the forge of personnel for the Soviet army. Orenburg tank
doctor historical sciences, Professor F.B. Komal
Recently, many publications have appeared, the authors of which are trying to explain the reasons for the defeat of the Soviet Army in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War. Many of these researchers rightly believe that one of the reasons was the massive repression of military personnel in 1937-1938. However, along with well-founded assessments of the events that took place then, there are also various conjectures and unsubstantiated statements. We will try to consider this problem strictly on the basis of documents.
First of all, we note that through the efforts of the party and government, a wide network of military educational institutions was created, which ensured the graduation of a sufficient number of military personnel of all specialties and their high-quality training. As the threat of an attack on our country grew and, in connection with this, new military formations and units were created, the network of military educational institutions expanded, which was especially characteristic of the pre-war years.
The number of military educational institutions grew from year to year, the number of students in them increased, as evidenced by data on the development of military schools ground forces in the period from 1937 to 1940 (see table 1). And the fact that the growth of military educational institutions contributed to an increase in the output of trained officers can be seen from Table 2. The dynamics of the influx of new officers into the army is shown in Table 3. The following were graduated from schools and colleges of the Air Force: in 1938 - 8713 people, in 1939 - 12,337, in 1940 - 27,918. Despite this, the chronic shortage of commanding officers in the army could not be eliminated. By the beginning of 1940 it was 60,000 people.
Table 1. Development of military schools of the ground forces in the period from 1937 to 1940
|
Name of schools |
1937 |
1938 |
1939 |
1940 |
|
Infantry |
||||
|
Infantry |
||||
|
Small arms and machine guns |
||||
|
Small arms and mortar |
||||
|
Total infantry. schools |
10/9360 |
14/13800 |
14/14250 |
59/94800 |
|
Cavalry |
||||
|
Artillery |
||||
|
High power artillery |
||||
|
Corps artillery |
||||
|
Divisional artillery |
||||
|
Artillery VET |
||||
|
Anti-aircraft artillery |
||||
|
Total artillery schools |
14/9660 |
20/18550 |
20/21600 |
20/26800 |
|
Art. weapon tech. |
||||
|
Art. instrument. intelligence FOR |
||||
|
Armored |
||||
|
Tank |
||||
|
Automotive |
||||
|
Tractor |
||||
|
Tank technical |
||||
|
Total ABT schools |
7/5450 |
9/8750 |
9/9400 |
9/14000 |
|
Communication schools |
||||
|
Engineering |
||||
|
Engineering |
||||
|
Sapper |
||||
|
Total engineering schools |
1/1320 |
2/1900 |
2/2300 |
4/5600 |
|
Chemical |
||||
|
Topographical |
||||
|
Medical |
||||
|
Veterinary |
||||
|
Military-economic |
||||
|
TOTAL |
49/36085 |
63/59150 |
64/65250 |
114/169620 |
*Including the Moscow Railway School for 500 cadets.
Note: The numerator shows the number of schools, the denominator shows the number of cadets on staff.
Table 2. Number of graduates of military schools by branch of service for the period from 1937 to 1940*
|
Military schools |
1937 |
1938 |
1939 |
1940 |
|
Infantry |
||||
|
Artillery |
||||
|
Cavalry |
||||
|
Armored |
||||
|
Engineering |
||||
|
Topographical |
||||
|
Military Communications Services (VOSO) |
||||
|
Chemical |
||||
|
Technical and others |
||||
|
Administrative and economic |
||||
|
Medical |
||||
|
Veterinary |
||||
|
TOTAL |
8508 |
20316 |
35290 |
35501 |
Table 3. Number of new officers entering the troops *
|
years |
from academies |
from schools |
from junior lieutenant courses |
reinstated in the army and accepted from the reserve |
total |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. Order of the NPO dated March 16, 1937.
2. Order of the NPO dated August 24, 1940. (about subordination).
3. From the Forum on 06/22/1941. Thanks to Evgeniy Drig and others.
4. Directives of the General Staff of 07/03/1941 and 07/15/41 (on redeployment).
5. Order of the NPO dated 09/03/1941 (including on relocation).
6. From the Forum on 06/22/1941. Thanks to Alexander Kiyan.
7. From the Forum. Thanks to Oleg Nelzin and Sergei Chekunov.
8. List No. 30 of military educational institutions (training centers, colleges, schools and courses) with the dates for their inclusion in the active army during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
Every day someone went off to fight
The Komsomol committee of the Astrakhan Pedagogical Institute was crowded. The boys and girls attacked their secretary Ivan Marinkin. There is only one requirement - to get to the front. Every day someone went to fight.
Astrakhan machine gun
The cadets of the Astrakhan Rifle and Machine Gun School No. 1 were Viktor Bazhanov, Mikhail Shcheglov, Alexey Nozdrin, Mikhail Semenov... Someone managed to graduate from a military school and an institute at the same time and at the graduation ceremony was already in a lieutenant’s uniform with gold buttonholes and stripes.
...The war was already raging nearby. Ivan Marinkin fought as a company commander on the Stalingrad and Southern fronts. In the battles for Rostov-on-Don in February 1943, he was seriously wounded in the spine. After the hospital, he was secretary of the Komsomol regional committee for military work, chairman of the committee for physical education and sports, and head military department Pedagogical Institute. In 1945, he led a group to clear mines from fields where the 28th Army fought and on the territory of Kalmykia.
The war was too serious a test for the guys who stepped from student dormitories into the damp trenches. Vitaly Semenov and Mikhail Schwartz, Ivan Lensky and Pyotr Bondarev did not return. Platoon commander Lieutenant Pyotr Abolyanin burned down in a tank.
In the Brotherhood Garden, many officers and cadet fighters of the Astrakhan military school sleep in eternal sleep in a common grave. Six bullets to the chest from a machine gun burst ended the life of Lieutenant Vladimir Tamshinsky. In a battle on the distant approaches to Astrakhan on a height near Yashkul on December 13, 1943, the entire officer corps of the battalion was killed. Only a few survived from Marinkin's machine gun company. At each gun lay a line of dead cadets... Each next one, replacing the dead one, moved the machine gun forward and immediately died. The soldiers stormed this height under three-layer enemy fire. Quite a few enemy soldiers also died then.
Dean with a revolver
As part of the 28th Army, Pavel Serdyukov, the dean of the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature of the Pedagogical Institute, fought for the strongholds of Kalmykia - Uta, Yashkul, Elista. Until the victorious May he crushed the enemy. Returning from the war with military awards, he recalled the winter of 1945... Soviet troops occupy German cities. The city of Bunzlau was taken with fighting.
Pavel Evgenievich and his comrades came to the grave where the heart of Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov was buried, who passed his military career from ensign, company commander of the Astrakhan regiment to the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in Patriotic War 1812. The soldiers of the Red Army paid a debt of respect to the great commander.
It is known that Kutuzov was not destined to enter Paris at the head of Russian troops. He died in Bunzlau on April 28, 1813. There is an obelisk here with the inscription: “Prince Kutuzov-Smolensky brought the victorious Russian troops to this place, but here death put a limit to his deeds. He saved his Fatherland and opened the path to the deliverance of Europe. May the memory of the hero be blessed." Before his death, the commander bequeathed: “Let my ashes be taken to my homeland, and my heart be buried here, at the Saxon Gate, so that my soldiers, the sons of Russia, know that my heart remains with them.” At his grave, his friends erected a modest monument, on which are written his words addressed to the Russian soldier: “Your iron breast is not afraid of either the severity of the weather or the anger of enemies. She is the reliable force of the Fatherland, about which everything will be crushed.”
Next to Kutuzov’s grave, in the very first days after the capture of Bunzlau, a majestic monument was erected, on the marble slab of which it is written in gold letters:
"Among foreign plains,
leading to the right feat,
You are a monument to immortal Russian glory
Built on my own heart!
But the heart did not stop
commander,
And in a terrible hour it calls for battle,
It lives and
fights bravely
In the sons of the Fatherland,
saved by you.
And now passing
on the battle trail
Your banners
rushing through the smoke,
Banners of your own victory
We bow to your heart"
From the soldiers of the Red Army who entered Bunzlau on February 12, 1945.”
Now on the hill, next to the commander’s heart, they are buried soviet soldiers and officers.
