And after returning? Why did you enter Germany alone

Current page: 13 (total book has 24 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 16 pages]

On October 7, the first snow fell. The road to the east became even more difficult and unbearable. The accumulated fatigue and depression from the defeat, the defeat experienced by the Latvians and Novoaleksandrovsky, made themselves felt - some of them could not stand the nerves. Products soon ran out. It is dangerous to enter the villages. German tanks were there. German motorcycles chirped along the country roads. The wedges on duty cruised along the Varshavskoye Highway. In addition, endless columns of armored vehicles and troops were moving. And it was also nerve-wracking.

That is why most of the prisoners in the German registration cards are marked on the 5th, 6th, 7th of October 1941.

And the operational summary for October 14 says: “... 9 people who were absent arrived at the departments of the army, including the chief of artillery of the army, Major General Ofrosimov, the head of the operational department of the army, Colonel Safonov, the commander of the 17th rifle division, Colonel Kozlov, the military commissar of the artillery department of the army, senior political instructor Tokarev and the group commanders and staff members in the amount of 5 people " 56
TsAMO. F. 388. Op. 8712. D. 13. L. 10.

It is difficult to understand how the group of the 17th Rifle Division, headed by Colonel Kozlov, ended up with essentially the entire task force of the 33rd Army, which at that time formally included the division, is difficult to understand. One can only assume that the brigade commander Onuprienko, frightened by the “tank landing”, hastily simply forgot his officers, who were at the time of flight much closer to the front.

Major General Ofrosimov was an excellent artilleryman, a real Russian officer. His fate was tragic. He will die in April 1942, along with his immediate superior, Army Commander 33, Lieutenant General M.G. Efremov during the battle for a breakthrough from the encirclement near Vyazma 57
Read more about this in the Forgotten Armies. Forgotten Commanders": Mikheenkov S. Tragedy of the 33rd Army.

When Colonel Kozlov and his staff left the encirclement, he was first removed from his post. The officers of the special department were checking all the arrivals. But the higher the rank and position of the commander, the more questions he had.

The divisions that emerged from the encirclement were again formed in Belousov, Tarutin, Maloyaroslavets, Sparrows, Ugodsky Zavod. From Serpukhov, Lopasnya (now the city of Chekhov, Moscow Region), Podolsk, marching companies and battalions arrived, as well as separate reinforcement units. The Headquarters hastily scraped the bottom of the barrel to stop the Typhoon at the turn of the Mozhaisk line of defense.

The check was more or less successful, Colonel Kozlov was again returned to his previous position. But he had only a few days left to fight.

On October 18, the replenished 17th Rifle Division took up defensive positions along the left eastern bank of the Protva River from Belousov on Varshavskoye Highway to Vysokinichi. The division's defense zone also included the district center Ugodsky Zavod and the village of Strelkovka - the birthplace of the new commander of the army general T.K. Zhukov 58
The story of how General Zhukov took his family out of Strelkovka to the rear, read in the book of the same series “Serpukhov. The Last Frontier". M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2011.

The next day, having pressed the neighboring left-flank 60th Infantry Division, the Germans broke into Vysokinichi. By that time, Tarusa had already been abandoned, and the road from Kaluga, where the enemy had accumulated a fairly strong grouping, to Serpukhov turned out to be free. The situation worsened with each passing hour.

Both the 17th and 60th divisions were stretched into a thin thread along their front (less than a squad of fighters with one gun with an ammunition load of five to seven shells per kilometer of front) and could not provide significant resistance to the enemy in those days. Colonels Kozlov (17th Rifle Division) and Zashibalov (60th Rifle Division) maneuvered their meager forces as best they could, concentrating subunits and firepower first on one threatened sector, then on another.

According to reports on October 20, the 17th division had 2,500 people and 30 km of front in one of the most dangerous areas. On the right, she covered the Warsaw highway, in the center of the old tract to Serpukhov.

On the same day, General Zhukov gives an order to the Military Council of the 43rd Army: “Force the 17th and 53rd Rifle Divisions to fight hard and, in the event of an escape, to the detached barrier detachment, shoot on the spot everyone who leaves the battlefield. Report the formation of the detachment. 1) I categorically forbid leaving the occupied line before 23.10. 2) Immediately send Seleznev to the 17th division, immediately arrest the commander of the 17th division and shoot him before the formation. The 17th division, the 53rd division must be forced to return on the morning of 10/22/41 Tarutino at all costs, including up to self-sacrifice.

The situation of those days required just such orders and orders. It is now possible to judge the cruelty and bloodthirstiness of some of the chiefs. And then the bosses walked at gunpoint ...

On October 24 such an incident took place. The Warsaw highway along the Klimovka-Petrovo-Teterinki-Kolontaevo front was covered by the 2nd Lyubertsy Regiment of Colonel Volkov, already known to us. Worn out in previous battles, tired of continuous attacks and counterattacks, the battalions of the Lyubertsy Regiment at some point faltered and began to retreat. Behind, in the second echelon, were the remnants of Major Klypin's 17th Tank Brigade. Observing the desperately dangerous maneuver of the shooters, the major wrote a note to the colonel and immediately sent it to Volkov's command post: “10/24/41. 16.00. Suspend your unit's retreat immediately. Put it in order and hold back the enemy advance in the Rozhdestveno area. For a retreat without a written order from the commander of 43 A, you will be shot.”

Soon the 2nd Lyubertsy Regiment stopped the retreat, restored the situation with a short counterattack and took up their previous positions. This is how order No. 270 of August 16, 1941 was executed.

The fate of Colonel Kozlov later developed as follows.

General Seleznev was sent to the 17th division. The new commander managed the remnants of the division no better than his predecessor, who fell under the hot hand of General Zhukov. But this was already Zhukov's henchman, and the attitude towards him, as well as towards the new commander Golubev, was different. True, Zhukov would not forgive them for serious mistakes in command and control of troops and a clear weakness of spirit.

On October 22, in a battle near the village of Chernishnya, the commander of the 53rd Infantry Division, Colonel Krasnoretsky, was killed.

How was Colonel Kozlov shot?

From the report of General Golubev:

"Army General Zhukov. 10/31/41. 23.40.

…Reporting a criminal fact. Today, on the spot, I established that the former commander of the 17th Infantry Division, Kozlov, was not shot in front of the line, but fled. The circumstances of the case are as follows. Having received your order to arrest and shoot the commander of the 17th Rifle Division before the formation, I instructed Seryukov, a member of the Military Council, and Lieutenant General Akimov, who was leaving for the division, to do this. For unknown reasons, they did not do this and sent the division commander to me. I, under escort, organized by the head of the Special Department of the Army, sent him back with a categorical instruction that the order of the commander must be carried out. I was informed that he was shot, and today I found out that he was not shot, but fled from the convoy. I order an investigation.

GOLUBEV.

Both Akimov and Seryukov were wounded in heavy fighting during these days. They knew the price paid for the steadfastness of the troops on the lines of Tarutin, Chernishni and Rozhdestveno. Of course, now one can only guess what were the true reasons for their non-execution of the execution order of the commander. But the fact remains that Colonel Kozlov was not shot. And, who fled from the convoy, was not found.

History ... Considering that difficult guys were escorting the arrested. Probably doomed to be shot before the line, the colonel was accompanied not by Petrukha, but by several people with a lieutenant at the head. And in such cases, the head of the convoy has an unambiguous order on how to act in the event of any danger, especially escape.

True, Colonel Kozlov was not an easy colonel either. From track record it follows that literally on the eve of the war he mastered two professions to perfection: parachuting and knowledge of the German spoken language. Well, why, tell me, does a simple infantry colonel need such rare and, one might even say, exotic professions for these troops? It can be assumed that Colonel Kozlov mastered well the techniques of hand-to-hand combat, as well as radio and other knowledge necessary for working deep behind enemy lines. Perhaps that is how it was. In the photographs, he looks strong, fit; sloping shoulders indicate great physical strength and regular exercise. Well, just a typical portrait of a candidate for the position of commander of a special unit for serious reconnaissance and sabotage work in the German rear. Perhaps that is how it was. But the enemy's breakthrough near Roslavl confused all the cards, and Colonel Kozlov remained in the division.

Several reconnaissance and sabotage groups operated in the center of the Western Front, including the battalion of Captain Ivan Starchak and the group, and later the partisan regiment of Captain Vladimir Zhabot.

In the history of the Great Patriotic War there are still a lot of secrets, and many of them will remain secrets.

In any case, Colonel Kozlov, who escaped from custody and was doomed to a shameful execution in front of the ranks, did not surface anywhere under his own name. No traces of it were found either among the Germans or in our archives.

In the 90s, a group of employees of the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, as well as colleagues of Colonel Kozlov and Brigadier Commissar Yakovlev, filed a petition with the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office for the rehabilitation of officers. An extensive document was prepared - “Military Historical Conclusion”, in which we read literally the following: “In the actions of the commander of the 17th Infantry Division, Colonel P.S. Kozlov and the military commissar of the division, brigade commissar S.I. Yakovlev has no corpus delicti. They were true patriots and gave all their strength, knowledge and experience to the defense of the Motherland. The massacre against them was carried out in a crisis situation on the outskirts of the capital, a certain panic among the country's leadership, a state of siege in Moscow, a change in army command, without conducting investigative actions, without a court martial and even without drawing up an act on the execution of the sentence.

On the Protva River, at the new frontier, it was already a different division. Not the same as the 17th was just two weeks ago. Replenished with people either infected with the virus of fear and flight, or not yet sniffing gunpowder, it no longer possessed the power and stamina with which it kept its trenches a hundred kilometers to the west on the Warsaw highway. The first part of the division remained near Kovalevka and Latvians on the Desenka River. Colonel Kozlov could not keep the fleeing. Seeing that the shelves trembled, he began to take them away in order to save the materiel and as many people as possible. There was no other way out. Otherwise, the division would have perished entirely. Died in isolation, unknown. But retreat is not an easy maneuver. And the run began, which was hardly stopped in the Tarutino area. Moreover, the fugitives were stopped personally by General Akimov and brigade commander Lyubarsky with officers of the headquarters of the operational group.

In one of the battles these days, the commander of the 53rd Infantry Division, Colonel Krasnoretsky, will die. Of the remnants of the three divisions - the 17th, 53rd and 312th - one will be formed, it will be headed by Colonel Naumov, who commanded the 312th division.

Colonel Kozlov's 17th Rifle Division fulfilled its mission and was... no, it was not disbanded - it died. She died the death of the brave in the fields and copses near Moscow, torn to pieces by tank caterpillars and air raids, attacks by the German infantry of the 4th field army.

The German historian Klaus Reinhardt wrote in his book “Turning near Moscow”: “Instead of a quick advance, heavy battles had to be waged, which allowed the Soviet command to wait for the salutary mudslide and delay the German offensive so much that the advanced units approached Tula only at the end of October. Thus, the maneuvering actions of the southern wing of Army Group Center were decisively paralyzed, which subsequently had a very sensitive effect on the actions of the entire German army.

The "maneuvering actions" of the German troops were paralyzed by the active, stubborn actions of precisely such formations and units of the Red Army as the 17th Infantry Division.

Nine people remained from the company. Hungry and angry, they dug in near the highway, occasionally glancing towards the forest, where a few minutes ago the last wagons of the sanitary convoy had disappeared. Third time for the past day their company was left behind. Initially eighty men with a captain and two lieutenants. Then thirty-six with the lieutenant. Now nine with foreman Devyatkin. From the entire convoy they collected cartridges, machine guns, grenades and two pouches of tobacco.

Tobacco was immediately put into action.

“Come on, guys, in a circle,” said the foreman and put the pouch on his hands.

They rolled cigarettes, knowing full well that this might be the last roll of their lives. But we had to hurry, to have time to dig into the ground. They survived two barriers and knew well what would happen here any minute.

- Chief! - suddenly waved the machine gunner Cheplykin towards the forest. - Look! No one is coming back!

- Is he thinking of giving up? - Staring tensely through the tobacco smoke and tears, said Sergeant Major Devyatkin. He already recognized his fighter, the elderly Paltsev.

The fighter walked heavily, carefully stepping on a thickly bandaged leg, which did not bend at the knee, while leaning on a freshly planed stick, apparently there, in the forest.

- What are you, Savelich? - Sergeant Major Devyatkin called out to him from a distance, as he would have called out to a sentry man, wandering straight to the post.

“Let me pull it once or twice,” he replied. - Where is my rear? All my Kosterevskys are here.

Fingers dragged on, looked around the trenches he had begun, his countrymen in a businesslike manner, and asked the sergeant-major:

- Where should I take a position?

Both foreman Devyatkin and all the fighters silently looked at their comrade.

Paltsev, who in the last battle acted as the second number of the calculation of a light machine gun, was wounded in the morning when they were crossing the Ugra and their company was scattered over the stubble in front of some nameless village. German motorcyclists have already flown into the village. They were trying to get to the crossing. They turned around and fanned out into the field right in front of the trenches of the barrier. The lieutenant, who remained behind the company commander, ordered to concentrate fire first on one motorcycle, then on another. The third and all the rest immediately turned back and did not stick out into the field again. They installed a machine gun between the sheds and began to water the field and the crossing with aimed fire. Fingers was wounded when they began to retreat to the crossing. The deed was done, the convoy went across the river, and it was necessary to cross over to the other side and burn the bridge.

- What are you doing, Savelich? You have a wound and seven children! - Sergeant Major Devyatkin was not happy with such a replenishment. If it were his will, he would again send Paltsev to the convoy, under the supervision of orderlies. But where is he now, convoy? It must be already on the way to Medyn.

To the west, off the highway, there was a rumble.

The remnants of the 17th Rifle Division went east along the Warsaw highway. The division, broken and dispersed through the woods by a German tank strike, was now making its way to Medyn in small groups. But the enemy advanced so rapidly that the word "Medyn" no longer sounded so salutary, and the fighters uttered it less and less. The collection point was initially assigned to Medyn, but then it was moved further to the east. What could this mean?

Fingers uncovered his shovel and began to peck the ground. The position he got was not so hot: on the edge of a shallow hollow, overgrown with a rare aspen forest, between the machine-gun crew and foreman Devyatkin. The road, a low sandy embankment overgrown with dusty weeds, passed to the left. She looked good. But even from the road, the chain of their rare cells was visible, it must be, at a glance. Fingers camouflaged the parapet with grass, stuck in several willow bushes. A willow bush grew nearby, to the left, and Fingers looked at it with some kind of hope. Perhaps because there was no other shelter besides this bush nearby. For a moment I thought: it would be nice to open a spare position behind him, just in case. But he looked at the foreman and subdued his anxiety: Devyatkin again, the old man, will begin to reproach him in front of the young people, that, they say, dad has torn to the ground, new vegetable garden went to open...

- Well, have you plowed your gardens? - as if guessing his thoughts, said Sergeant Major Devyatkin. - Who has a bite?

Paltsev had a bag of breadcrumbs in his duffel bag. There were a decent amount of crackers left, about six. He protected them.

But now there is no need to save NZ. How long will they stay here? Half an hour? Hour? See who approaches them. If it's just reconnaissance, they will shoot and retreat. And if the column immediately knocks down ...

He loosened the frayed straps and took out a bag. But he did not touch the breadcrumbs. I thought: what kind of land is here - sand and pebbles, and in Zheltukhin we have solid loam. The same is in Vareev, and in Novinki. True, the vegetable gardens are good, they have been fertilized from cattle yards for centuries. He looked at the end of the hollow, where in the thickets of willow and alder he could guess a stream or stream. In the eyes immediately got up native Peksha, Kukushkinskoye Lake, the faces of children, last words Evdokia, her look... How is she with seven... if anything... Peksha is a big river, no match for the local ones. And its banks are steeper, and the floodplain is much wider and freer. Oh, what mowing they have near Zheltukhin on Peksha!

A bitter lump formed in my throat, I couldn't push it or cough it out. Sore leg. A stick carved in the wood lay next to the trench. Will he ever need it again or not?

This fight turned out to be completely different from the previous ones. The Germans did not appear from the west, from where Sergeant Major Devyatkin and all of them were waiting for them. The foreman had already started looking at his watch.

Guys, we're leaving for another hour.

Everyone immediately perked up - there was hope.

But soon motors rumbled in the woods behind them, and voices were heard. They immediately understood - motorcyclists. And a lot, at least five or six. Or enhanced reconnaissance, or forward detachment. Or maybe it's ours? The convoy reached Medyn, and a transport was sent for them, who remained in the barrier?

- To battle! Cheplykin! Come on gun! Don't shoot without orders!

It was already too late to throw the parapet to the other side and mask it. Fingers put a rifle on his duffel bag and began to aim at a nearby target: a lone motorcyclist, who, having overtaken a small column that emerged from the forest, famously raced along a dusty road straight to their position. The team of foreman Devyatkin merged with a friendly volley, and the motorcyclist shook his head and, together with the motorcycle, began to fall sideways into a ditch.

Sergeant Major Devyatkin was reloading a jammed PPD and cursing. He wondered where the Germans came from in the forest, behind their backs, and why they were attacked from the rear?

From the road, two machine guns hit them at once. The machine gunners fired directly from the carriages. They immediately seized the initiative. From the trenches they were answered with rare rifle shots, but they soon stopped.

Fingers fired accurately, each time telling himself not to be afraid, not to hide his head in the ditch when the bullets began to whip very close. It was necessary to get ahead of the German machine gunners, to silence them, at least one. But the clip quickly ran out, and with trembling fingers he began to stuff a new one into the magazine. He glanced at the neighboring trenches. Sergeant Major Devyatkin pulled Cheplykin away from the machine gun, Cheplykin was covered in blood - they hit Cheplykin. Now they are without a machine gun. A guy from Bormin stuck his face into the ground, Fingers remembered him from the battles near Novoaleksandrovskaya. The helmet slipped to one side, the temple was shot through.

- Oh, you are robbers! – cursed Fingers and began to aim even more carefully. He no longer heard the bullets, did not even feel how one of them tore the overcoat cloth on his back, and the other touched the heel of his boot.

The German, whom he had looked at with hatred for several seconds through the ring of the namushnik, fell off the smoking machine gun and threw back his head. The motorcyclist immediately gave gas and turned to the forest. The dead man's head swung from side to side. The second motorcycle repeated the maneuver of the first. The field was quiet.

Thank you, Savelich. - Sergeant Major Devyatkin crawled up to his trench, he was dragging a machine gun and two spare disks. "I'm sorry I thought badly of you. Thought you'd be a burden. And you ... look how you did it.

- How many of us are left? he asked the foreman, until he crawled away, dragging a bloodied machine gun over the bullet-chopped grass. Where did he take him? Must be in a spare position.

- Antonov was killed, Gavrilin was wounded. And one more guy...

- Is Khromov alive?

- Alive. His rifle was mangled. Cries.

Khromov was from Omutishchi. Vasya Antonov from the village

Senga-Ozero, and Yegor Gavrilin from the Petushki themselves, lived on May Day Street, worked at the Coil factory. Two more guys from the village of Lipny were to the left of the road. They also shot and shouted something to the foreman during the battle. Really fought back and the Germans will no longer turn up? But even if they fought back, where would they go now? The road has been blocked. Looks like they went there in a roundabout way, and jumped out on them when they decided to reconnoiter the road.

It rumbled in the forest. A heavy motor was running, not a motorcycle one.

A squat wedge crawled out onto the edge. She pulled off the road and maneuvered through the trees for a while. Stopped. The hatch opened. A tanker leaned out of the tower and began to examine the road through binoculars, a rare bush and a sawn-off hollow, where the Vladimir peasants, led by foreman Devyatkin, had dug in. The hatch slammed shut, and the tankette slowly, as if stealthily, began to move forward. From time to time she made short stops, and then her machine gun began to work.

It was pointless to fight the iron machine. Sergeant Major Devyatkin fired several bursts and hid the machine gun behind the rocks. Fingers also pressed himself into the ground and covered his head with his hands. Heard the voice of the foreman:

- Get the grenades!

The tankette did not go directly to them. Seeing that the Red Army soldiers did not give up, as had almost always happened in previous road fights, the driver began to maneuver around the perimeter of the dug-in men.

Meanwhile, foreman Devyatkin was twisting anti-personnel grenades with a piece of telephone wire. But he failed to throw a bunch under the wedge heel. The driver kept his distance all the time, and the machine gunner poured fire on the trenches with the living and dead defenders of the line.

At some point, willow bushes appeared between the tankette and the foreman's trench, and Devyatkin jumped out of the cell, ran forward and lay down behind the willows. He crawled across the hollow and hid behind an ant tussock. He was waiting for the tankette to go along the hollow, and then he could throw a bunch of grenades at it. But the machine gunner apparently noticed his movement. The wedge took a little to the right, turned around. The barrel of the machine gun fell a little lower. There's a turn. One, another. The foreman, realizing that he had been discovered, recoiled to the hollow, rolled down. And froze. That's it, Devyatkin was killed, Fingers realized, watching the foreman's fight with the German tankette. And no more grenades.

Crawling to the neighboring ditches and looking for grenades there was a hopeless affair. First, the machine gunner kept their position under constant fire. Secondly, Paltsev was closer to the foreman. And closer to the wedge.

Having dealt with the grenade launcher, the wedge crawled further along the hollow. It won't go through the hollow, Fingers realized, there's a swamp down there. Wait for it to pass on and hide behind the hillock. The tankette, purring with a motor, crawled away further, and soon its stern began to settle behind a small hillock, overgrown with willow and horse sorrel.

Fingers got out of the trench and straight, without wasting a second, crawled to the hollow.

It was damp below. It smelled like swamp. I remembered Kukushkinskoye Lake, a backwater with swampy shores, where he and his father once upon a time, even before the first war, caught tench ...

Eh, crawl to Devyatkino. Did he lose grenades...

The foreman lay on his side. The bullets entered his lower back and exited one under the collarbone, and the second below, tearing the quilted jacket on his chest. How he took care of this quilted jacket of his! Since September, I kept it in the wagon train, I only took it out to clean and dry it from the night dampness.

A bunch of grenades lay nearby. Fingers took the foreman's hand away and took the bundle. Devyatkin's hand was still warm. Maybe our foreman is still alive, Fingers thought hopefully. Now we will fight back and bandage our commander, drag him into the forest ...

The tankette returned. The machine gunner cut through the line of trenches in short bursts. Nobody raised their heads from there. And the Germans, apparently believing that the deed was done, were returning back.

Paltsev had to wait. If the tankette follows its trail, then in a minute or two it will be five paces from the edge of the hollow. We need to crawl closer, and then he will bring the bundle to her for sure. But if you crawl away from the foreman, they will notice him from the tankette and start shooting at point-blank range. No, it's better to wait here. He clung to motionless body foremen and called Devyatkin:

- Devyatkin, are you alive, brother?

Devyatkin was silent.

Already the ground was trembling, it smelled of exhaust gases and grease. No, don't raise your head until it comes quite close. The pain in my leg is completely gone. It seemed to Paltsev that his knee was bent and it was obedient that in a moment he would be able to easily jump to his feet in order to complete his work to the end.

The tankette crawled out to the edge of the hollow and stopped.

Finger raised his head. The barrel of a machine gun, sticking out of a squat tower, fell down. This means that the Germans were alert when they saw his foreman next to the body. Now they are slashed by a queue and ...

He jumped to his feet and, feeling no pain, ran towards the iron car. The pin of the grenade was already pulled out, and he intercepted the bundle and with both hands threw it exactly under the right caterpillar. The bundle fell where he threw it. But before exploding, it rolled under the bottom.

Before he was swept away by the blast wave and shrapnel, Paltsev managed to look back at the trenches of his comrades, at Sergeant Major Devyatkin, who was lying in the hollow. From the forest was a chain of German infantrymen.

The Germans stopped and, while the tankette was burning, they did not dare to approach either the trenches, or the hollow, or the burning combat vehicle. They looked gloomily now at their sergeant-major, now at the terrible flame in which they imagined the death groans of their comrades. The sergeant-major also stood still, his face stone-faced.

Born in 1905 in the Klimovichi district of the Mogilev region. Member of the CPSU (b) since 1928. In the Red Army since 1926. Member of a Finnish company in 1939-1940. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1940. Military education - Military Academy of the Red Army. Frunze in 1941. He was fluent in German. Member of the Patriotic War. With the beginning of the war, Colonel Kozlov P.S. formed a division of the people's militia of the Moskvoretsky district of the capital. He was appointed to the position by order of NCO No. 00364-41. The division took part in the defense of Moscow, almost completely dying in battles with the superior forces of the Nazi invaders. According to the recollections of the former military prosecutor of the 43rd Army Aleksev Boris Ivanovich * On October 10, 1941, he was invited to the commander of the 43rd Army, Lieutenant General Akimov, who acquainted him with a telegram signed by the Commander of the Western Front, General of the Army Zhukov G.M. in which it was written: “For retreat without my order from the Ugodsky Zavod area in the Tarutino area, the commander of the 17th rifle division, Colonel Kozlov, the commissar of the division Yakovlev, is to be shot before the formation. Report on execution immediately. I think that the former military prosecutor made a slight inaccuracy with the date and place. First, during the fighting on October 3 and 4, 1941, the 17th Rifle Division as part of the 33rd Army found itself in an operational encirclement. On October 10, she entered the Naro-Fominsk region, covering a distance of 250-300 km and losing all materiel. About the fate of the division commander Colonel Kozlov S.P. nothing was known, since, as it turned out later, at that time he was still making his way with a group of fighters and commanders from the encirclement. Second. The military commissar of the division comrade. Yakovlev was appointed later - 10/12/41 and arrived at this position from the Political Department of the 33rd Army. And the 17th Rifle Division itself was still part of another association - the 33rd Army of the Western Front. Third. As of October 10, 1941, the Ugodsky Zavod had not yet been captured by the enemy. According to the data specified in the Operational Report of the Headquarters of the 33rd Army, as of 10/14/41 - 1. Parts of the 33rd Army continue to resupply: a) the 17th Infantry Division - in the Ugodsky Zavod area: personnel 558 people; trucks - 12; horses - 50; rifles - 141; light machine guns - 55; PPD - 2; radio stations of the Republic of Belarus - 2. 876 anti-tank regiment: personnel - 37 people; rifles - 30; machine guns - 5; materiel - no. KP - Ugodsky Plant. In addition, according to documentary evidence given in Operational Report No. 227 of the headquarters of the Western Front of October 18. 24.00: The 17th Infantry Division takes up defensive positions along the river. Protva from Belousov to Vysokinichi: 1316 joint venture - (claim.) Highway Maloyaroslavets near the village of Obninsk, claim. Dubrovka and Yerivosheino; 1314 joint venture defends the Dubrovka, Strelkovka, Bol. Roslyakovka; 1312 joint venture - occupies the defense site of Nov. Slobodka, Vysokinichi, Lykovo. Division Headquarters - Ugodsky Zavod. According to official data, the Germans captured Ugodsky Zavod on October 21, 1941. Therefore, it is logical that only after this did a formidable directive come out signed by the Commander of the Army General Zhukov and a member of the Military Council of the Front Bulganin. In the documents available to us there is a mention of this directive: В 4.45 22.10. The commander of the 43rd Army was given an order from the Commander of the Western Front: 43A Golubev, 1. Withdraw from the occupied lines until 22.10. once again I categorically forbid. 2. Immediately send Seleznev to the 17th Rifle Division (author's note - Major General, Deputy Commander of the 43rd Army for Logistics, took office on 10/24/41), immediately arrest the commander of the 17th Rifle Division and shoot him before the formation. Force the 17th division, the 53rd division to return on the morning of 22.10. Tarutino by all means, up to and including self-sacrifice. 3. You report a small number of fighters in formations and heavy losses, search immediately in the rear, find both fighters and weapons. 4. In defense, fully use the RS-s sparing no shells. Himself is located on (KP) in the combat area. For the defense of the Gorki, Kamenka area, I am subordinating to you one more Airborne Brigade and a tank brigade, which from Kresta can be moved closer to Gorki, but keep in mind that if you also do not spare the tanks, as you did not spare them today, throwing them in the forehead on anti-tank defense and there will be nothing left of this brigade, just as there is nothing left of the good 9th tank brigade. Zhukov, Bulgakov. Transmitted at 4.45 22.10. Golubev personally. For the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that after leaving the encirclement, the 17th Infantry Division was never equipped with either personnel, let alone weapons and other necessary for combat operations. By the time it was transferred to the 43rd Army, it had a little over 2,500 people. personnel, mainly the personnel of the disbanded 211th Infantry Division were turned to its recruitment. It turns out that 22.10. the army was commanded neither by Major General Golubev, but by Lieutenant General Akimov, and there is a "distortion" of facts. After a conversation with the commander, according to the military prosecutor of the army, he organized an investigation that lasted all night! (From the book of a professional military lawyer Vyacheslav Zvyagintsev "War on the scales of Themis. The war of 1941-1945 in the materials of investigative and court cases" M. Terra, 2006, 768 pp.) The division commander Kozlov fled after interrogation as an accused. Kozlov was detained only in January 1942. He nevertheless appeared before the VT and was shot by a court verdict. Yakovlev, on the other hand, was demoted to the rank of private and sent into battle, where he atoned for his guilt with blood, as you know, until the end of the war he worked as an instructor in the political department. We have no reason not to believe Major General Alekseev Boris Ivanovich *, who, being a brigadier and military prosecutor of the 43rd Army in August 1941, broke through from the enemy encirclement with soldiers and army commanders, was wounded in battle. On February 14, 1943, he was awarded the title of Major General of Justice. He was born in 1902, a native of the Chuvash ASSR, Cheboksary region, with. Togaevo. Russian. In the Red Army since 1920. Member of the CPSU (b) since 1919. Awards: two Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, Order of Kutuzov I I degree, Order of Bogdan Khmelnytsky II degree (09/13/1944), two orders of the Patriotic war I degrees, medals: XX years of the Red Army, "For the Defense of Moscow", etc. However, let each of those who read pay attention to the facts that are important for a complete, comprehensive and objective view of the fate of Colonel Kozlov P.S. According to official documents, Colonel Petr Sergeevich Kozlov went missing on the front of the fight against the Nazi invaders in 1941. Based on the order of GUK No. 0623-43, he was excluded from the lists of the Red Army command staff. His wife, Valentina Andreevna, lived in the Ivanteevsky district of the Saratov region. In 1950, the family filed a petition for a pension, as evidenced by the appeal of the Mogilev Regional Military Commissar dated July 13, 1950 No. IO-281 to the GUK (entry No. 5633 dated 09/217/1950) with a request to provide data on the length of service in the spacecraft of Colonel Kozlov P.S. for the purpose of assigning a pension to the deceased during the Great Patriotic War. After verification, the necessary data was reported to Mogilev. Personally, I can say one thing, that if he had been shot for desertion and cowardice, then in accordance with order number 227, his family would also have been subjected to severe repressive measures under the laws of wartime. Head of the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense Russian Federation A. Koltyukov and the leading researcher of the IVI MO RF, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, retired colonel B.I. Nevzorov, prepared a “Military-historical conclusion on the compliance of the actions of the command of the 17th Infantry Division of Colonel Kozlov P.S. and Brigadier Commissar Yakovlev S.I. conditions of the situation in the defense zones of the 33rd and 43rd armies in October 1941. In this case, I will limit myself to the conclusion of authoritative historians: “1. In the actions of the commander of the 17th Infantry Division, Colonel P.S. Kozlov and the military commissar of the division, brigade commissar S.I. Yakovlev has no corpus delicti. They were true patriots and gave all their strength, knowledge and experience to the defense of the Motherland. The massacre against them was carried out in a crisis situation on the outskirts of the capital, a certain panic among the country's leadership, the introduction of a state of siege in Moscow, a change in army command, without conducting investigative actions, without a court martial and even without drawing up an act on the execution of the sentence. 2. The Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation supports the appeal of the Directorate of the State Museum of Defense of Moscow on the rehabilitation and return of a good name to the command of the 17th Infantry Division P. S. Kozlov and S. I. Yakovlev in the absence of corpus delicti. Note: The 17th division of the people's militia of the Moskvoretsky district was formed on July 3-7, 1941. Colonel P. S. Kozlov was appointed its commander, and Professor I. S. Kuvshinov was appointed commissar (From October 12 - brigade commissar Yakovlev S. I. ) On the basis of the directive of the Headquarters of August 23, 1941, the division was understaffed with personnel, personnel commanders, weapons, military equipment, various property, and from September 26 it was transformed into the 17th Rifle Division of the Red Army for a reduced composition (staff from July 1941 ). Having in its composition about 10,500 people, 8341 rifles, 270 machine guns (light and heavy), 52 mortars and 28 guns, the division took its first battle by the end of the day on October 2. (According to other sources, the 17th Rifle Division, by the time it entered the battle on October 2, 1941, had the following strength and armament: with a strength of 11,454 people - 8087 rifles, 60 easel, 148 light and 3 anti-aircraft machine guns, 79 50-mm mortars , 159 PPSh, 27 guns of various calibers.

Pyotr Sergeevich KozloV- Colonel, participant in the Finnish and Great Patriotic War, commander of the 17th Infantry Division of the second formation. He was arrested, sentenced to death for leaving the line of defense, escaped from arrest. Was in German captivity. July 21, 1943 by order of the GUK NKO No. 0627 Kozlov P. S. was excluded from the lists of the Red Army with the wording "missing." In 1943 he was shot in the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

Service in the pre-war period

Born in 1905 in the Klimovichi district Byelorussian SSR. In the Red Army since 1926. Since 1928 - a member of the CPSU (b). He participated as a pilot in the Finnish War and received the Order of the Red Banner. He graduated from the Frunze Military Academy (1938), the Air Force Academy in Monino (1941). He was a skydiving instructor, fluent in German.

The Great Patriotic War

On July 2, 1941, he headed the 17th Moscow Rifle Division of the people's militia, aimed at building the Mozhaisk line of defense, in the Ilyinsky area. On September 19, 1941, Kozlov's division was transformed into a personnel division with the same number retained. Since October 3, 1941, the 17th division has been defending in the area of ​​​​the city of Spas-Demensk, since the 5th it has been surrounded. While Kozlov was surrounded, Colonel M.P. Sanfir took over the actual leadership of the division.

10/14/1941 Kozlov with the remnants of the division goes to the Ugodsky plant and again takes command of the division.

On October 17, near the city of Ugodsky Zavod, the 17th division, as part of the 43rd Army, received the task of blowing up bridges on the Protva River and organizing anti-tank defense. However, it was unrealistic for the small units of the division to defend the assigned line (25-28 km).

10/22/1941 for the withdrawal from the occupied line, the Commander of the Western Front, Zhukov orders the commander of the 43rd Army, General Golubev:

"2. Send Seleznev, commander of the 17th Rifle Division, immediately to the 17th Rifle Division arrest and shoot before formation»

However, as it turned out in our time, Kozlov was not shot, but escaped from arrest.

General Golubev reports this as follows: “To General of the Army Zhukov. 10/31/41. 23.40. I am reporting a crime. Today, on the spot, I established that the former commander of the 17th Infantry Division, Kozlov, was not shot in front of the line, but fled. The circumstances of the case are as follows. Having received your order to arrest and shoot the commander of the 17th Rifle Division before the formation, I instructed Seryukov, a member of the Military Council, and Lieutenant General Akimov, who was leaving for the division, to do this. For unknown reasons, they did not do this and sent the division commander to me. I, under escort, organized by the head of the Special Department of the Army, sent him back with a categorical instruction that the order of the commander must be carried out. I was informed that he was shot, and today I found out that he was not shot, but fled from the convoy. I order an investigation. Golubev".

Family

• wife, Valentina Andreevna Solovieva-Kozlova, after the evacuation lived in the Ivanteevsky district. Repeatedly tried to find information about the fate of her husband.

Military ranks

• 1940: colonel

Links

• Once again about the fate of the soldiers
• Once again about Colonel P. S. Kozlov ...
• Kozlov Petr Sergeevich
• 17th People's Militia Division
• Let's fight, Comrade Colonel
• The harsh truth of war

Literature

• Serpukhov. The Last Frontier. 49th Army in the battle for Moscow. 1941 Mikheenkov S. E. Serpukhov. The Last Frontier. 49th Army in the Battle of Moscow. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2011. 254 p. ISBN 978-5-227-02802-0.
• Great Patriotic War: Divisional Commanders. Military biographical dictionary. Volume 4. - Moscow: Kuchkovo field, 2015.

1.31.2017 | Story

Sergey ARZHANTSEV

The Soviet commander, colonel, participant in several wars Pyotr Kozlov was born in the Klimovichi region. Here he spent his childhood, here he graduated from high school and… entered independent adult life. But today there is no information about this person in the Klimov region, although local historians know well about other military leaders, local natives. Acquaintance with the biography of P.S. Kozlova shows that there were many mysteries and secrets in her that have not been solved so far.

Petr Sergeevich Kozlov was born in 1905 in the village of Domerichi, Klimovichi District. His parents were ordinary peasants, so the son was expected to repeat the fate of his parents. But turning times, revolutions and wars have changed dramatically life path simple country boy.
For the new government, the peasant origin of Peter was a confirmation that he shared the policy of the Bolsheviks. This, no doubt, was the case. In 1924, Pyotr Kozlov became a member of the Komsomol, and for the next few years he received a military education. After graduation, the young officer commands a platoon, company, battalion. In 1936 he was sent to fight in Spain. After returning, becoming a regiment commander, he goes to the Soviet-Finnish war, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In the summer of 1940, Major Pyotr Kozlov took part in the annexation of Bessarabia. The last months of peace were busy studying at the Air Force Academy.
On July 2, 1941, Colonel Kozlov was instructed to form detachments of the Moskvoretsky district, which became the 17th Moscow rifle division of the people's militia. The division fights heroically, gets surrounded and goes to its own with heavy losses. In October 1941, the commander of the Western Front, Zhukov, ordered P. Kozlov to be shot for withdrawing the division from positions. He was arrested and interrogated, and then a series of events begins, which are being solved to this day. According to one version, Colonel Kozlov was convicted by a tribunal and shot in front of the line. But there is evidence showing that Pyotr Kozlov escaped from arrest and after escaping was captured by the Germans.
The archives contain information about Soviet prisoners sent by the Germans to the Warsaw intelligence school. Among them was an officer who can be considered Colonel Kozlov. This is indicated by the fact that in 1942 a German intelligence officer voluntarily appeared in the NKVD and handed over a letter from Kozlov. The letter proposed to establish cooperation in order to fight the Nazis behind the front line. But the proposal was not accepted, as it was believed that enemy intelligence was using Kozlov in an undercover game. In addition, in response to requests from the NKVD, it was reported that Kozlov had been shot or was missing. Obviously, the Soviet secret services did not want to take risks.
After perestroika, the mysterious disappearance of Pyotr Kozlov again came to the attention of researchers. It is significant that on October 5, 2005, he was posthumously rehabilitated as unreasonably repressed extrajudicially. But four years later, the rehabilitation was canceled on the grounds that Kozlov was not shot, because he escaped from custody and was taken prisoner. This brings certainty to the most confusing episode of his biography, but still does not answer the question of why he ended up in German captivity and how he behaved there. There is information that on January 5, 1943, P.S. Kozlov was executed in the Flossenbürg concentration camp. So, apparently, he became one of the countless victims of that bloody era, whose life was broken and destroyed by the cruel circumstances of wartime.

Raspavestsi:

Comments:

The small village in which he was born, grew up, which Colonel Kozlov always remembered. He must have had a family somewhere. Do his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren know that Klimovichi remember him? Or maybe they erased him from memory as an "enemy of the people." But now we know that there are no enemies of the people.

The family of Colonel Kozlov P.S. not just was, but is ... The youngest daughter is alive (80 years old), there are grandchildren and already great-great-grandchildren ... I am the eldest granddaughter .. My grandmother (Kozlova Valentina Andreevna) all her life hoped to find out about the fate of her husband, but there was one answer to all our numerous requests - went missing in 1941 near Moscow ... At present, the presence of the Colonel from the first days of captivity in the Wehrmacht camps has been documented (he passed three STALAGs and one OFLAG), he did not cooperate with the Germans (there are no marks in the prisoner of war card), he did not teach in intelligence schools of the Abwehr !.. Both the Ministry of Defense and the German Red Cross confirm that he was handed over to the Gestapo and shot along with Generals Shepetov and Presnyakov ... We (grandchildren and great-grandchildren) knew from childhood that our grandfather Peter was a Hero and were always proud that we were his descendants …

Having studied all possible available materials on this case, I affirm with all responsibility: NOT GUILTY. Colonel, commander of the 17th Infantry Division, Kozlov Petr Sergeevich - a victim of the Nazi regime, worthy of a good name and blessed memory, as an honest officer of the Soviet army, who to the end fulfilled his duty to the Motherland.

Candidate of Historical Sciences, Makarova E.A.

Galina Vladimirovna, thank you very much for your comment. The fate and life path of P. S. Kozlov are of interest to everyone who wants to understand our common historical past. And it is important to do this as objectively as possible, even if many decades have passed since then. It seems that now there are conditions and opportunities for this, so that the secret of the life and death of Pyotr Kozlov will finally be revealed.

Galina Vladimirovna. You have someone to be proud of and pass on the good memory of this brave man. Just think at the age of 31 he is fighting in Spain, and by the age of 35 he is already behind both Finnish and Bessarabia. By 36 Colonel. At 38 he was shot….. Eternal memory to this worthy son of the Belarusian land.

Archival research

Unknown division commander-17

It so happened that the name of Colonel Mikhail Pavlovich Safir, commander of the 17th Infantry Division, an outstanding commander of the Great Patriotic War and a remarkable person, did not appear in the combat history of this formation, which defended the approaches to Lopasna and Moscow in 1941.

Mikhail Pavlovich Safir

The years of the people's tragedy - the Great Patriotic War - are leaving us farther and farther into the past. Millions of books have been published about this time, and it seems that there are no already unknown pages of military hard times that could change our ideas about certain events. But in fact, it turns out that they are, just not visible for the time being, and are waiting for their time. Why is this happening?

The answer is perhaps simple. Let us recall what Mark Tullius Cicero, an ancient Roman politician and philosopher, a brilliant orator who lived before our era, said on this subject: “The first law of history is not to dare any lie, then not to be afraid of any truth, and to write in such a way as not to let yourself be suspected of either sympathy or hostility”(highlighted - V.S.). If you think about it, and why hide it, and not according to opposite laws, were created in our country after the war " scientific works» and historical literature about the war? Unfortunately, this is still common today.

But, as folk wisdom says: “You can’t hide an awl in a bag!”. And therefore, all the post-war years, along with the “official truth”, the people lived on the rights of legends, stories of front-line soldiers and simply participants in the events of another truth and the history of the Great Patriotic War. Not sugary, and often even spicy, but which we all believed more than official myths.

Today, in order to objectively assess the past, it is very important to clean it from the tares. But it would hardly be right to enter into polemics with this or that author or researcher and prove to the reader who and what is mistaken. Wouldn't it be better to give him the opportunity to reflect on the facts of history on his own? Everyone has the right to seek the truth. In this article, the task was to show several everyday days of the war in seemingly already known events in the combat history of the well-known 17th Infantry Division, which defended the approaches to Lopasna and Moscow in 1941. And to remind the reader that the front is not only a bloody duel of opposing sides, the minds of military leaders and the excitement of attacks. That this is the hard everyday work of many services, including the rear, on whose efficiency and coordination of actions our common victory over the enemy ultimately depended.

For many years, due to limited access to the documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO RF) on the history of the Moscow militia divisions, researchers used the books of the historian A.D. Kolesnik (Moscow militia. M., 1966.; Militia of hero cities. M., 1974.) as well as a collection of documents by a group of authors - compilers called "The militia in defense of Moscow" (M., 1978.). Despite the fact that these books carried the features of the "ideological" approaches that took place at that time, they still played a significant role in our understanding of the tragic events of 1941. But, alas, with solid circulation, the serious shortcomings contained in them showed their enviable vitality, which led to the rooting of fundamental errors in subsequent studies of historians. So, for example, it was believed that the 17th Rifle Division became part of the 43rd Army of the Western Front only with access to the eastern bank of the Nara River, in the area of ​​​​the village. Stremilovo, Begichevo, Vysokovo, namely, October 22, 1941. And the period of reorganization of the division in the area of ​​​​Ugodsky Zavod after the release of its units and subunits from the encirclement near Spas-Demensk was generally characterized only by the numbers of a rapid, as if by magic, growth in the size of the division without disclosing this complex process, as well as the names of commanders who were engaged in understaffing the division. It was understood that all this time the division was commanded by Colonel P.S. Kozlov. The situation has not changed even now, when access to archives is greatly simplified, and many documents can be accessed by users. And these documents allow us to take a different look at the situation that developed at that time.

Immediately before the start of the operation of the German troops under the code name "Typhoon" as part of the 33rd Army brigade commander D.P. Onuprienko, which was part of the Reserve Front, there were 3 Moscow militia divisions: 17 sd colonel P.S. Kozlova (in the center of the operational formation of the army, covered the approaches to the city of Spas-Demensk and Warsaw highway - V.S.), 60th division of Major General L.I. Kotelnikov (right) and 173rd Rifle Division Colonel A.V. Bogdanov (left). The fighters and commanders of these divisions at the beginning of October 1941 had a severe test. The divisions, having suffered heavy losses in the first battles, were forced to retreat in scattered groups to the Mozhaisk line of defense in the area of ​​​​the city of Maloyaroslavets. This process was extremely difficult. The 33rd Army was drained of blood, which forced the command of the Reserve, and later the united Western Front, to take emergency measures to organize defense at this line of retreat, and the 33rd Army, as incapable of combat, was transferred to the front reserve for reorganization. It is enough to note that in the lists of personnel of the headquarters of this army at 22.00. October 9, 1941, located at the assembly point in the village. Kind, even the chief of the operational department of the headquarters of the 33rd Army, Colonel Safonov, and the chief of artillery of the army, Major General Ofrosimov, were reported missing.

And here is what the extraction from the operational summary of the army says - 33 to 12.00. 10/11/41.

"Parts 33A produce contraction individual groups, units and units of the army sent by 12 command groups in different directions of the possible movement of groups and units 33A

17 sd - collection point - Mashkovo. By 24.00 10.10.41. 203 registered. Division commander and commissar, chief of staff and NO - 1 appointed(highlighted - V.S.). Part of the rear organs of the 17th Rifle Division was sent to Mashkovo. Formation, accurate accounting of personnel, materiel and horses is carried out on the spot.

On October 11, 1941, on the basis of the order of the Military Council of the 33rd Army, Colonel M.P. Safir, who appointed by order No. 1 dated 10/11/41. Acting Chief of Staff of the Division Captain Ya.A. Gritsman, and the battalion commissar V.V. Kilosanidze.

Order No. 1 dated 10/11/41.

From that moment began hard work on the formation of units and units of the 17th Rifle Division, and the new command of the division was energetically included in it. Already in report No. 2 (village Mashkovo) to the commander of the 33rd Army, brigade commander D.P. Onuprenko Colonel M.P. Safir, as well as Brigadier Commissar S.I. Yakovlev at 14.00. 10/12/41. reported: “... Over the past day, 94 fighters and 17 commanders arrived ... Provision of weapons - 123 rifles, light machine guns - 1, PPD - 2 (automatic machines - V.S.). "Beacons" were sent to Borovsk, Vereya and Podolsk (to collect division groups - V.S.). By the middle of the day 10/12/41. the influx of fighters stopped. Individuals who do not belong to the 33rd Army come up. Trucks 9, they are not provided with fuel and lubricants. There is no quartermaster supply. The means of communication can be obtained after the arrival of personnel, which is not present at the moment. You need to get underwear, shoes and camp kitchens.

By 19.00. 10/13/41. according to the order of the command of the 33rd Army, the 17th Rifle Division was relocated to the area of ​​​​the Ugodsky Plant and already had 558 people, 141 rifles, 57 light machine guns, 12 trucks and 2 walkie-talkies.

Commenting on these documents and the figures given in them is not required. They speak eloquently for themselves. The personnel that was currently in the units in the absence of materiel could not be called a division under any circumstances. Its formation was carried out practically from scratch. Solutions to existing problems were needed, which were soon found. And this, above all, is the replenishment of the division due to the marching companies arriving from the reserve, as well as the merger with parts of other formations that find themselves in an equally desperate situation. But again, there were difficulties here too.

Here is an extract from the report to the brigade commander D.P. Onuprienko, signed by M.P. Safir, S.I. Yakovlev and Ya.A. Gritsman:
“I am reporting the formation of the 17th Rifle Division. The command staff and fighters of the former 17th rifle division (highlighted - V.S.) as of 10.00. 10/14/41. only about 500 people arrived. The flow continues, but on a small scale.(highlighted - V.S.).

a) a group of commanders and fighters of the 8th division in the amount of 80 people.

b) parts of 211 sd in the number of command staff 241 people, junior beginning. composition of 215 people. and privates - 951 people(highlighted - V.S.).

c) 4 marching companies of political fighters in the amount of 397 people.

Total in the division at 12.00. 10/14/41. consists of 2423 people, 617 horses, 29 trucks, 717 rifles, 58 light machine guns, PPD - 2, PPSh - 2.

... From the command staff of the 211th Rifle Division, Lieutenant Colonel Alekseenko was admitted to the post of regimental commander 1316, and thus now the commanders and commissars of the regiments have been appointed to all three joint ventures. From the composition of the 211th division, the remnants of the OBS (divisional communications - V.S.) arrived in the amount of 38 people. with very little property. The replenishment of the OBS is expected by order of the chief of communications of the front. The head of communications of the division was appointed by the front and arrived. The former sapper company of the 17th Rifle Division arrived with 90 people, while from the 211th Rifle Division - 33 people.

For the production of urgent engineering work, the division was assigned Motoinzhbat.

... The material part of the artillery of the 17th division did not arrive. 211 sd gave for staffing 122 mm guns - 4 pcs., 76 mm - 5 pcs., 120 mm mortars - 2. All of the above is aimed at forming 980 ap(artillery regiment, highlighted - V.S.).

The motor transport company is formed by the headquarters of the front at the expense of the 7th auto regiment.

... All the replenishment that arrived was not provided with rifles, namely: fighters of the 17th rifle division by 75%, soldiers of the 211th rifle division - by 50%.

In order to bring the units being formed into a combat-ready state, I ask you to urgently allocate divisions of rifles, machine guns, machine guns, the missing artillery materiel and ammunition, especially rifle cartridges and hand grenades.

I also ask for instructions to the head of logistics on providing the division with food, especially baked bread, clothing supplies, forging and fuel and lubricants.

Order No. 4 signed by P.S. Kozlova

Having received such a report, the command of the 33rd Army immediately responded to it, as evidenced by the resolution on this document marked “Urgently ensure ...” signed by Brigadier Commissar Shlyakhtin, a member of the military council of the 33rd Army. As a result, by the end of the day, the division received additional materiel, ammunition, food, weapons (in particular, a significant number of PPSh assault rifles), and two marching companies from Novosibirsk consisting of 286 people arrived.

Order No. 5 signed by M.P. Safira

Reading these dry lines, one can only guess what incredible efforts the work of staffing units of the 17th Rifle Division required from its command in conditions when, for example, the 60th Rifle Division of the 33rd Army was in approximately the same state, and the 173rd Rifle Division in general at that time only began to go out in small groups to the designated collection area. All this happened in a situation where bloody battles were going on between formations and units of the 43rd Army of Lieutenant General S.D. . Akimov. And literally every soldier was counted.

In all, this, in fact, a new and far from complete division, to a greater extent could be considered 211 rifle divisions than 17 rifle divisions of the original composition. However, it was decided to leave the previous number for 17 sd, and 211 sd ceased to exist on October 15, 1941.

And where was Colonel P.S. all this time? Kozlov, who commanded the division earlier? In the operational report No. 114 of the army 33 to 14.00. 10/14/41. (Voronovo village) it was recorded: “... 9 people who were absent arrived at the departments of the army, including the chief of artillery of the army, Major General Ofrosimov, the head of the operations department of the army, Colonel Safonov, Commander of the 17th Rifle Division Colonel Kozlov(highlighted - V.S.), the military commissar of the artillery department of the army, senior political instructor Tokarev and a group of commanders and staff members in the amount of 5 people. It can be assumed that all these officers left the encirclement together, since there is no other data on their whereabouts until this date.

On the evening of October 14, 1941, Colonel M.P. Safir handed over command of the 17th Rifle Division to Colonel P.S. Kozlov. So Pyotr Sergeevich Kozlov, after a break, again headed the 17th Rifle Division, the strength of which, in his absence, was increased in just 4 days, from 203 people to 2879, that is, more than 14 times! And this is not a miracle, this is the hard work of many people who, with incredible efforts, restored the defeated division. And among them, of course, the leading role belonged to the commander of the 17th Rifle Division, Colonel M.P. Safira.

Significant touches to the picture of precisely these events are contained in the memoirs of veteran militiaman G.F. PC. Sternberg (GAISh). He was among the first to join the 8th division of the people's militia of the Krasnopresnensky district of Moscow (since September 26, 1941, it became known as the 8th division - V.S.), participated in the battles of this division, left the encirclement, and later his fate was connected with the 17th division . Not so long ago, the memoirs of this front-line soldier were transferred by the author for safekeeping to the Chekhov Museum of Memory of 1941-1945, and the interested reader can familiarize himself with them in full. They are unsophisticated, but they contain the harsh truth of war.

G.F. Sitnik recalled: “17th DNO (it is from 09/26/41 - 17th rifle division - V.S.), occupying the defense, fought defensive battles. I was sent to this division by the political department of the 43rd Army as a military commissar of the mortar battalion of the 1316th Infantry Regiment. But from October 13 to October 22, I served as the military commissar of 980 AP 17 DNO, since no mortar battalion existed yet. In the same regiment there was neither a commander nor a commissar, and all leadership lay with the chief of staff of the regiment, senior lieutenant Nikolsky. Thus began my combat work as part of another formation - 17 DNO of the Moskvoretsky district of Moscow. Today, as the reader is convinced, the memories of the front-line soldier are fully confirmed by the cited documents of TsAMO RF.

On October 16, 1941, Major F.F. Maslennikov arrived at the post of chief of staff of the division. And on October 17, 1941, by order of the command of the Western Front, the 17th Rifle Division was withdrawn from the 33rd Army and included in the 43rd Army, where it received the task of defending the Spas-Zagorye - Vysokinichi line(highlighted - V.S.). Thus began a new stage in the history of the 17th Rifle Division, which subsequently led it to the Stremilovsky line.

Report of M.P. Safira
and S. I. Yakovlev dated 12.10.41.

About the critical situation that arose on the Narsky line in the 20th of October 1941, the author has repeatedly spoken in our newspaper (“Chekhov Vestnik” dated 06/19/07, 07/17/07, 11/13/07, 03/04/08, 02/10/09 . and 17.02.09). Leaving aside the description of the tragic events, we note that on October 22, 1941 at 4.45. In the morning, the commander of the 43rd Army received a formidable order:

"Golubev.

1) Withdraw from the occupied line until 23.10. once again I categorically forbid.

2) Immediately send Seleznev to the 17th division, immediately arrest the commander of the 17th division and shoot him before the formation(highlighted - V.S.).

17 sd, 53 sd to force to return in the morning of 22.10. Tarutino, by all means, up to and including self-sacrifice...

Zhukov, Bulganin.

Let us ask ourselves the question: why was General Seleznev, who at that time was the deputy commander of the 43rd Army for rear, urgently sent by the command of the Western Front to command the 17th Rifle Division? Today, given the facts published earlier and the above, the answer to this question seems simple. General D.M. Seleznev, finding himself in a similar situation in early September 1941, knew the 211th Rifle Division well. He had to restore and subsequently command this unit for 2 weeks during the fighting in the Roslavl direction. He was an experienced military leader, who had already proven himself more than once as a strong-willed and competent commander, capable of solving complex issues in the difficult conditions of retreat not only of a separate division, but of the 43rd Army as a whole. And the 17th sd of the new formation, as the reader already knows, absorbed a significant part of the commanding and enlisted personnel of the 211th sd. More about this - in the author's article "Difficult days of Commander Seleznev" ("Chekhov Bulletin" dated 10.02.09.).

But, returning to the indicated topic, it is necessary to tell about who and where Colonel M.P. was from. Saphir.

Mikhail Pavlovich Safir was born in 1895 into an Orthodox family of court counselor Pavel Nikolaevich Safir and a peasant woman in the Novgorod province, Marfa Kuzminichna Koroleva. Major General of Tank Troops. In the rank of lieutenant, he took part in the First World War, for which he was awarded 6 orders. Russian Empire(all with swords and bows). In battles he was wounded twice, shell-shocked, gas attacked by the Germans. In 1918 he voluntarily joined the Red Army. Teacher of the fire cycle at the courses "Shot" (1929-1933) and the Department of "Shooting from a tank" at the Military Academy of Armored Forces (1933-1939). Since 1939 - Deputy Inspector General of the Armored Forces of the Red Army. From July 1941 to March 1943 - commander of the armored forces of the 33rd Army. In 1943-1944. - Deputy, and from 1944 to 1947. - Head of the Department of Combat Training of Tank Forces, and later, until 1954 - Deputy Inspector General of the Armored Forces of the Main Inspectorate of the Soviet Army.

There is such an episode in the biography of this remarkable man and commander. After the fighting near Naro-Fominsk, M.P. Safir was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In his award list, signed by the commander -33 M.G. Efremov and a member of the military council of the army brigade commissar M.D. Shlyakhtin, in particular, says: “... In the battles with the Nazis from December 2 to December 6, 1941, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bheight 210.8, the villages of Petrovskoye and Yushkovo, Comrade Safir personally led the actions of the 5th tank brigade, 136th and 140th separate tank battalions . As a result of the skillful management of operations, the enemy was defeated and began to hastily retreat. Parts of the tank group with attached rifle units completely restored the situation.

Signatures. 27. 12. 41.

Son of M.P. Safira, a war veteran and participant in the 1945 Victory Parade, retired colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Safir, in his wonderful book The Harsh Truth of War, reveals the details of this award in this way: “M.G. Efremov, after the end of the fighting, wanted to introduce M.P. Safira to the Order of Lenin, but a member of the military council of the 33rd Army, Brigadier Commissar M.D. Shlyakhtin said: “He is non-partisan - only over my corpse!”, And was awarded only the Order of the Red Banner.

For impeccable service in the Red Army and the Soviet Army M.P. Safir was awarded 6 orders and many medals. Dismissed in 1954, died in 1981, buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Today we do not know for what reason the name of Colonel M.P. Safira was not included at one time in the historical form of the 17th Rifle Division, which is now stored in the TsAMO RF along with other commanders of the militia division included in it. We also do not know on the basis of what, a laconic entry appeared in this document: “The 17th rifle division was reorganized on the basis of the 17th and 21st rifle divisions (?!!! - V.S.)”. In the end, the historical form, and, in fact, the combat biography of the 17th division, which was compiled much later than the events described, is not a dogma. The same people worked on it, who, like us, could also make mistakes. And now it's not so important.

Today, something else is important. The main, decisive thing for us is what they are talking about, about the forgotten division commander-17, authentic front-line documents that have survived and come down to us by some miracle, sometimes on scraps of paper. And they open to us a previously unknown, albeit bitter, but true page in the history of the 17th Rifle Division, returning from the distant and tragic 1941 the name of a remarkable military leader and man, a patriot of the Fatherland Mikhail Pavlovich Safir, and with him the names of his comrades in arms, whose deeds can one should be proud, paying tribute to their memory.

Indeed, history reveals its secrets not when we wish it, but only when the time comes for it. And it looks like it has already arrived. Happy Victory Day, dear countrymen!

Valery Stepanov.