Aleksey Gordeevich Eremenko is a famous battalion commander. “About the heroes of bygone times…”: Aleksey Gordeevich Eremenko is a famous photo of a hero who became one of the symbols of the Great Patriotic War! (A photo)

Bright memory

For those who don't!

For those who have not met

peaceful dawn,

Through the cannonade

Through the hunger

Through the fear

Proudly Victory

Carried on the shoulders.

This is one of the most famous photos Great Patriotic War.

The picture was taken 30 kilometers from Luhansk, where the blood of Soviet soldiers flowed like a river in fierce battles on Ukrainian soil.

This photo is called "Combat".

It is not staged and is not a frame from the film.

Who is this man and how was his fate?

On July 12, 1942, near the village of Good, photographer Max Alpert managed to take a picture of a man who raised a company of soldiers to attack, and then a shell fragment broke the camera. The photographer decided that the frames were spoiled and did not write down the name of the person he photographed. Later, developing the film, he saw that the frame turned out to be excellent.

After some time, the identity of the person in the photo was determined - his name was Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko.

Here is what an eyewitness, Alexander Makarov, said about those events:

“The Nazis rushed into attack after attack. There were many killed and wounded. Our greatly depleted regiment was already repulsing the tenth or eleventh attack. The Nazis climbed right through to Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk), which was about thirty kilometers away. By the end of the day, the company commander was wounded. After a fierce bombing, with the support of tanks and artillery, the Nazis launched another attack. And then, rising to his full height, with the words: “Follow me! For the Motherland! Forward! ”, Yeremenko dragged the company along towards the chains of the Nazis. The political instructor died, but the attack was repulsed.”

Despite the fact that Aleksey Eremenko had the position of junior political instructor, the world remembered him as an unnamed battalion commander.

The fact is that while fiddling with the broken apparatus in the trench, the photographer did not follow the situation for some time, but he heard how the chain was transmitted: "The battalion commander was killed."

On the eve of the celebration of the 35th anniversary Great Victory on the site of the feat of political instructor A. Eremenko, near the highway near the village of Good, a monument was erected. The sculpture resembled a well-known photograph.

The following words were inscribed on the granite pedestal: "In honor of the heroic feat of political workers of the Soviet Army in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The feat of A. G. Eremenko."

The baton of the father was taken over by the son, Ivan Alekseevich Eremenko. He served for a long time as a political worker in the ranks of the Soviet army, is a retired colonel.

Grandson A.G. Eremenko, Andrei Ivanovich, also followed in the footsteps of his famous grandfather, served as an officer in the ranks of the Soviet army until the collapse of the USSR.

The youngest of the Eremenko dynasty is named after the memory of his great-grandfather - Alexei ...

This photograph has truly become a textbook, as it is published in almost all publications that cover issues of the history of the Great Patriotic mine. In terms of publication frequency, it is comparable to photo reproductions of the Motherland monuments in Stalingrad or the Liberator Warrior in Treptow Park in Berlin. The picture was first published in July 1942 in almost all newspapers in the USSR and even in a number of publications abroad under the title " Combat". The London "Sunday Times" on the first page then wrote: "The battalion commander raises fighters to attack. This picture captures the heroic deed of the whole people ..." "Combat" became a revelation for the entire world community.

"Combat" is a famous photograph of the Great Patriotic War, taken by Soviet photographer Max Vladimirovich Alpert. The photo shows the commander raising soldiers to attack, a few seconds before death. "Combat" is one of the brightest and most expressive photos of the Great Patriotic War. For a long time, despite the fact that the picture was famous and popular, only the history of its creation and the name given to it by the photographer were known. The identity of the person depicted on it remained unknown.

This photo is called "Combat" (that is, "battalion commander"), despite the fact that the author gave this name by mistake. This photo is not staged and is not a frame from the film. This happened on July 12, 1942, near the village of Khoroshee between the rivers Lugan and Lozovaya (now the village of Khoroshee, Slavyanoserbsky district, Lugansk region), in the area of ​​military operations in which the 220th rifle regiment 4th Infantry Division, where in those days the Red Army fought stubborn bloody defensive battles with superior enemy forces.

The photographer took up a position in a trench just ahead of the defensive line. At that moment, the German attack began, an air raid took place and shelling began. Alpert saw the commander rise and immediately photographed him. At the same moment, a fragment shattered the lens of the camera. The correspondent considered that the film had died and the frame was irretrievably lost, and did not write down the name of the person he photographed. Fumbling with the broken apparatus in his trench, he did not follow the situation for some time, but he heard how the chain was transmitted: "The battalion commander was killed." The name and position of the commander remained unknown to the author, but what he heard later gave a reason to call the picture that way. Later, developing the film, he saw that the frame turned out to be excellent.

After some time, the identity of the person in the photo was determined - his name was Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko.

And that's what draws attention here Special attention. Aleksei Gordeevich died a heroic death two weeks before Order No. 227 of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief ("Not one step back!") was issued. That is, in the most disturbing period great war when the turning point in it had not yet come, when our troops retreated farther and farther east with the hardest battles and losses, when other unbelievers had already put an end to the fate of their homeland. And the hereditary grain grower, a native of the village of Tyrsyanka, Volnyansky district, Zaporozhye region, before the war - the chairman of the advanced Zaporizhzhya collective farm Alexei Eremenko, the father of four little-smaller-less children, who at that moment did not know anything about the fate of his family (were they alive, did they manage to evacuate? ), always firmly believed and knew that the enemy would be defeated and victory would be ours. It was not for nothing that he rushed to the front from the first day of the war, although he had a reservation from the draft, which was provided to him as an economic manager for solving important national economic problems. And he achieved his goal: on July 14 he was mobilized. Then there were short-term training courses for political workers in Zaporozhye and distribution as a political instructor to a rifle company ...

Attempt to identify

In the early 1970s, journalists from Komsomolskaya Pravda and members of the Luhansk regional youth organization Molodogvardiets attempted to identify the person depicted in the famous photograph. He allegedly turned out to be a native of the village of Tersyanka, Volnyansky district, Zaporozhye region, Aleksey Gordeevich Eremenko, junior political instructor of one of the companies of the 220th rifle regiment of the 4th rifle division.

Here is what the former fighter of the sanitary platoon of the 220th regiment, later major political worker Alexander Makarov, said about those events: " The Nazis frantically rushed into attack after attack. There were many killed and wounded. Our greatly depleted regiment was already repulsing the tenth or eleventh attack. The Nazis climbed right through to Voroshilovgrad, to which there were about thirty kilometers. By the end of the day, the company commander Senior Lieutenant Petrenko was wounded. After a fierce bombing, with the support of tanks and artillery, the Nazis launched another attack. And then, rising to his full height, with the words: “Follow me! For the Motherland! Forward! ”, Eremenko dragged the company along towards the chains of the Nazis. The political instructor died, but the attack was repulsed."("Science and Life", 11.1987, "Combat")

Former commander of the 4th Order of Suvorov Bezhitskaya SD Hero Soviet Union Lieutenant General Ivan Pavlovich Rosly, in his memoirs, speaks of a former subordinate as follows: “We defended Voroshilovgrad, covering the withdrawal of the 12th Army to a new line. In some sectors, the Nazis penetrated into the location of our division, but were driven back by decisive counterattacks. Then he led his company in a victorious counterattack and political instructor A.G. Eremenko. That fight was his last. But the memory of those who died in the battles for the Motherland is immortal ... ”(“ The last halt is in Berlin ”. M., Military publishing house, 1983, p. 204).

Veteran of the 285th division, reserve lieutenant colonel Vasily Sevastyanovich Berezubchak describes these events as follows: " For eight months our division stood on the defensive, covering the Voroshilovgrad direction. Then, on the orders of General Grechko, she moved to a new line, taking up defense near the village of Good. Here a heated battle broke out, during which the political instructor Eremenko died. I find it hard to believe that the photo was taken elsewhere, during another fight. Because Eremenko was killed during the counterattack. However, in that battle there was no correspondent nearby ... And it was on the morning of July 12th. Heavy artillery fire fell upon us. We beat off the first attack. But during the second, the right flank of the division trembled. The soldiers began to withdraw. We were deaf, blind, many of us bled from our ears - our eardrums burst! I received an order from the divisional commander to restore the situation, to stop the soldiers, because the situation was critical. He ran towards the retreating ones. And then I saw Eremenko. He also ran across the fighters. Stop! Stop! he shouted. We lay down. They gathered people around them. We were few, a handful. But Eremenko decided to counterattack to restore the situation. This is not forgotten. He stood up to his full height, screamed, rushed to the attack. We burst into the trenches, hand-to-hand ensued. They fought with rifle butts and bayonets. The Nazis faltered and ran. Soon I saw Eremenko in one of the trenches. He was falling slowly. I ran to him and realized that the junior political instructor no longer needed help ..."

On the other hand, according to TsAMO, political instructor A. G. Eremenko was listed as missing in January 1942, that is, according to the documents, he died at the very beginning of the year and under circumstances that were not completely clarified. However, it is alleged that the widow, 32 years later, that is, approximately at the same time when the mentioned search for Komsomolskaya Pravda was carried out, received a new notice, amended by the heroic death of her husband on July 12.

In May 1974, one of the bureaus received a letter from Zaporozhye from the chairman of the district executive committee, Ivan Alekseevich Eremenko. He wrote: “On the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, our whole family gathered at the table. It just so happened: on this day we will definitely gather to honor the memory of those who did not return from the war. Suddenly, a call. The postman brought mail and newspapers. My mother, out of habit, began to look through a stack of newspapers in search of letters. And suddenly he screams: “Vanya! Father! Our father!" My heart skipped a beat, my breath caught. I look at the picture in the newspaper - and I can’t believe my eyes: dad, dad was found!

After some time, another letter came from the village of Terstyanka, Volnyansky district, Zaporozhye region: “Excuse us, dear comrades, but we don’t know how to find the front-line correspondent M. Alpert. The fact is that in his battalion commander we recognized our father and husband A. G. Eremenko. Help me please".

To him were several pre-war photographs of Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko. And this letter was met with a great deal of skepticism, which was strengthened by the notice attached to it, received by the wife of Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko Yevdokia in 1942: “We inform you that your husband, junior political instructor Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko, born in 1906, on January 14, 1942, went missing ".

And yet, for a thorough check of this version, the great similarity of the facial features of A. G. Eremenko and the officer, taken in profile by Alpert, forced him to undertake. The examination confirmed the identity of the person recorded in all the photographs.

From the memoirs of a son:

"- Who conducted the examination?

Very painstaking research was carried out by the KGB Decryption Institute of the USSR, the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Medical Examination of the USSR Ministry of Justice. The military writer Sergei Sergeevich Smirnov helped us a lot. The Department of Defense helped. A forensic portrait examination was also carried out.

- What, it was so difficult to determine your father or not?

Imagine yes! There were so many applicants for kinship with the battalion commander that it was impossible to make a mistake. It took the Moscow experts a long time to say with absolute certainty: yes, this is political instructor Eremenko, he fought in the 220th regiment of the 4th rifle division. "

Konstantin Stepanovich Garmanin, former secretary of the Volnyansky district committee of the Komsomol, also sheds light on his fate: “I knew Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko well. He worked in our district as the chairman of the Krasin collective farm. At the end of June, we were both sent to Zaporozhye, to the school of political staff. Then the school was transferred to Pavlograd. There we were caught by the breakthrough of the Nazis in the region of Dnepropetrovsk. The entire staff of the school fought off the attacks. But the forces were too unequal. We got surrounded. I was the leader in the group. Decided to break through. Eremenko supported me. The night was dark, it was raining. We walked through the dense forest. When later I checked the people, it turned out that cadet Eremenko was not with us. When we got out of the encirclement, I filed a report on him as a missing person. The similarity of surnames and initials, apparently, misled the staff officers. So the error happened. Together with Alexei Eremenko, we served in February 1942. We were given the rank of junior political instructors and sent to the 285th division. On the morning of February 27, I was seriously wounded and sent to the hospital. Since then, I have not met Eremenko.”

After that, it became clear that Aleksey Eremenko was not an army commander, but only a political instructor, and even then a junior one.

Only after 32 years, the military commissar corrected his mistake by sending Evdokia Eremenko a new notice: “We inform you with regret that your husband, junior political instructor Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko, in the battle for our Soviet Motherland, faithful to the military oath, showing heroism and courage, died at the front 12 July 1942".

It is mentioned, however, without evidence, the version that the picture was taken at the exercises even before the start of the war. The picture really gives some grounds for such doubts, since the fighters on it are equipped in a marching way, duffel bags and an overcoat in a roll, worn over the shoulder, are clearly visible. This does not fit with the stories of Alpert, Makarov and Berezubchak about the counterattack of the unit that took up the defense under fire from the Nazis after an air raid and shelling.

"We see one buttonhole, and in the middle there is one square (“cube” or “head over heels”, as they were usually called in everyday life) and above, at the edge of the buttonhole, an emblem in the form of two crossed rifles against a target. It is impossible to confuse it with another. There were no emblems that closely resembled her.

This emblem was worn only by servicemen of the border troops of the NKVD and rifle divisions of the NKVD (except for the military-political staff). In any case, neither in the order of the NKO USSR No. 33 of March 10, 1936, which introduced "labeled badges-emblems" (as they were then called), nor in the Charter of the Internal Service of the Red Army (UVS-37), which was put into effect in 1937 I did not find this emblem. And this NPO order was valid until January 1943, when by order of the NPO of the USSR No. 25 of January 15, 1943 No. emblems in the army have been changed.

But this is not the point, but the fact that until January 1943 the procedure for wearing emblems was somewhat different than the one we are used to. Emblems according to the types of troops were worn only by the command staff and the Red Army. The commanding staff wore emblems according to the nature of their service, regardless of the type of troops in which they serve (military technical staff - a crossed hammer and key, military economic and administrative staff - their characteristic emblem, military medical and military veterinary staff a snake wrapping around a bowl , military-legal composition - a shield against the background of crossed swords).

There was no emblem for the military-political staff (commissars and political officers)! And the political workers did not wear any emblems in their buttonholes and could not wear them. Not in any kind of troops of the Red Army, not in any parts of the NKVD!

Consequently, the photograph does not depict a political instructor, but an officer of the border troops or the insurgent division of the NKVD. I will make a reservation that according to some secondary sources it is indirectly clear that this emblem seemed to have been assigned to the infantry of the Red Army before the war, but I did not find documentary evidence of this even in the archives. And the snag is not in the emblem itself, but in the fact that the political instructor could not have any emblem in his buttonhole! COULD NOT! And she is in the picture.

Let's move on. As I said above, one cube is clearly distinguished in the buttonhole. Meanwhile, when personal ranks were introduced in the Red Army in September 1935 by the Decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the rank of "political instructor" was the most junior rank of the military-political staff. By order of the NPO of the USSR No. 176 of December 3, 1935. for this rank, 3 (!) Cubes were determined as insignia.

On August 20, 1937, by order of the NPO of the USSR No. 166, three new ranks were introduced - junior lieutenant, junior military technician and junior political instructor. "

The opinion that political workers should not have worn the emblems of the branch of service is untenable: “The command and political staff wear the emblems of their kind of troops on their buttonholes.” - from the NPO order No. 226 of July 26, 1940. In addition, it is enough to increase the contrast of the photo with its good quality, so that the second “cube” becomes visible, which turned out to be in the shadow and, because of this, is invisible on lower-quality copies of the photo. The emblem turns out to be crossed rifles on a target, that is, an infantry emblem, reintroduced on January 1, 1941, after its absence in the period 1935-1940.

According to another version of Kombat's personality there is also a mention of senior lieutenant Pavel Fedorovich Petrov, a history teacher from Kirov region. The picture, which has become one of the symbols of the Great Patriotic War, shows Senior Lieutenant Pavel Petrov, who lived in Slobodskoye for many years. It seems that the hero of the photograph would have remained “in the shadows” if it were not for a letter that recently arrived from Ukraine to one of the suburban schools.

In the message, a war veteran from Mariupol Alexander Ivanovich Kulchenko asked if the inhabitants of the Kirov region were aware that the person depicted in the legendary photo of the war years was their fellow countryman. Photojournalist Max Alpert did not know anything about the hero either, so he signed the photo with one word - “Combat”. In the war and post-war years, it was believed that the political instructor who got into the frame was killed the very next moment. Meanwhile, the teacher of the Sloboda school high school No. 5 Viktor Elkin is sure that our fellow countryman Pavel Petrov was the "Combat". In the process of correspondence and exchange of documents, according to the researcher, this information was confirmed.

It turned out that a native of the village of Melet, Malmyzhsky district, Pavel Fedorovich graduated from a forest technical school, then, after serving for three years, he studied at the historical and philological faculty of the Kirov Pedagogical Institute. Since there were not enough teachers, after the 2nd year the young historian was sent to Slobodskaya, to school No. 6. There he taught the history of the Russian state for two years. Before the war started...

After studying at special courses, Petrov, with the rank of senior lieutenant, ended up in Stalingrad. Here there were battles for the height of 92-05, from which the whole city was visible and shot through. All approaches to it were stopped by the Nazis with a flurry of fire, the slopes were strewn with the bodies of dead Red Army soldiers. The front command set a combat mission - to capture the impregnable height. On October 26, 1942 [only the picture was published in July], along with the fighters, Senior Lieutenant Pavel Petrov also went on the assault.

“The situation was becoming critical,” Pavel Fedorovich recalled many years later at a meeting with journalists. - The surviving fighters turned to me: “Comrade political instructor! If you go on the attack, we'll follow you!" That's when I got up with a pistol in my hand and led the battalion. I caught a glimpse of a running military man with a camera, but then I thought it was our company photographer. When 70-100 meters were left to the enemy pillboxes, the attack bogged down again - the Germans began to hit with direct fire from anti-tank guns. Then I got up for the second time, holding the pistol in my hand, and commanded: “Follow me!” Apparently, at this moment, the Alpet correspondent pressed the release button of the Leica. We ran straight to the pillbox, and 20-25 meters from the firing points of the Nazis, I was wounded in the leg. I crawl and shout: “Surround the height!”. But the soldiers, even without my command, finally knocked out the Germans from a height of 92-05.

Then, already beyond the Volga, a senior staff officer found the political officer and said that the command of the 93rd brigade was presenting senior lieutenant Petrov to a high government award - the Order of the Red Banner of Battle. But the award sheet never went to Moscow. Petrov's immediate superior, the head of the special department of the brigade, did not sign the petition: "I did not send him into battle."

After the hospital, Petrov was offered to stay to serve in military units. Sverdlovsk region, but he rushed back - to the front. As part of the 57th Army, he fought through Bessarabia, Romania and Hungary. In one of the clashes, Pavel Fedorovich was wounded by a machine gun in both legs. Then - a long treatment, recovery in a sanatorium in the city of Evpatoria. Here, Senior Lieutenant Petrov met nurse Vera Mikhailovna Goncharova, who became his companion for many years of living together ...

After the war, our fellow countryman returned to Slobodskaya, continued his studies at the Pedagogical Institute, combining it with work at school, but front-line wounds made themselves felt ... First he was treated in Kazan, then, on the advice of doctors, he changed the climate and in 1969 moved to Ukrainian city of Mariupol. He moved his whole family here soon. On March 2, 2005, at the age of 92, the heart of the legendary warrior of the Battle of Stalingrad, Pavel Fedorovich Petrov, “Combat”, stopped beating.

Further use of the image

"- Of course, you also visited the site of your father's death?

- Many times. A lot has been done there. On the eve of the 35th anniversary of the Great Victory, not far from Lugansk, near the village of Horosheye, a monument was erected - the father is in full growth, as in the photograph, with a pistol in his hand, raising the fighters to attack.

- Well, there is not just a monument, but a huge bronze monument!

- This building cost seven and a half million rubles. A special building management out of 400 people. The place was chosen well, on a hill, they poured a 25-meter mound. One hundred 20-meter piles were installed to hold the monolith.

— The sculptor of this monument is very talented...

— Yes, it was a sculptor from Lugansk Ivan Alekseevich Chumak, he sculpted a statue of a battalion commander. He told me that he went through a lot of approvals. Either the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine believed that because of the raised arm of the battalion commander, his face was not visible, then the tablet was not like that. Agreed and in the Central Committee of the CPSU. Then in Kyiv in a special workshop they cast a bronze figure weighing 17 tons, delivered it to Lugansk. When they installed, I spent the day and night there. After the installation of the monument, he took 10 liters of alcohol, snacks and gave it to the workers to remember his father and all those who did not return from the war.

- Were you at the opening of the monument?

- Certainly! There were a lot of people. The monument was opened by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Ukraine Lyashko - he also fought on that sector of the front. Capsules with earth were brought from the hero cities of the Union. Everything was very solemn. "(From an interview with I. Eremenko)

The emblem of the Donetsk Higher Military-Political School of Engineering and Signal Corps

Zaporozhye Cossacks and a number of patriotic organizations in February 2011 appealed to the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych with a request to confer the title of "Hero of Ukraine" (posthumously) to junior political instructor Oleksiy Eremenko. The Cossacks ended their appeal with the following words: "... we express the hope that the next award decree will meet the expectations of the broad patriotic public, and of the whole of Ukraine too."

On July 12, 2012, by decree of the President of Ukraine V. Yanukovych No. 450/12, the title “Hero of Ukraine” and the Order of the “Gold Star” were awarded posthumously to Aleksey Gordeevich Eremenko “for personal courage and heroism shown in battles against fascist invaders during the Great Patriotic War of 1941 -1945" (it is possible that this decision was influenced by the picket of representatives of a number of public organizations with the requirement to assign this title to Alexei Eremenko).

"- IN Soviet time also petitioned for the battalion commander to be awarded the title of Hero?
- It was so. The first secretaries of the Lugansk and Zaporozhye regional committees of the Communist Party of Ukraine Goncharenko and Vsevolozhsky came out with such a petition to Brezhnev. And Brezhnev had a birthday. They decided to give him a book about political instructor Eremenko, the history of the creation of the monument, which was built by the entire Union, and at the same time solve the issue of conferring the title of Hero on my father. Brezhnev saw the book, got emotional, burst into tears: this is my army! These are my political officers! Eremenko is a hero, but he has no award. How so! And then Suslov rises: yes, the legendary battalion commander, even if he is legendary, but Leonid Ilyich, who raised such fighters, will soon have a birthday and the best gift for Leonid Ilyich is the assignment of the title of Hero to him. Everyone applauded. In general, it was already not up to the father. Goncharenko told me this later."(From an interview with I. Eremenko)

And in independent Ukraine, this issue was also raised, - as Ivan Eremenko recalled, under the governor Yevgeny Chervonenko, a petition was written from the regional state administration - to President Viktor Yushchenko. True, as Ivan Alekseevich complained, for some reason the name of his father was distorted - instead of Eremenko they wrote Efremov. The petition turned out to be fruitless ... And the mayor Alexander Polyak promised the son of the hero that Yuzhnoukrainskaya Street would be named after Alexei Eremenko. But he failed to keep his promise...

Probably, someone will object that there were thousands of people like Eremenko during the war years. But he should become the personification of those who raised a company or battalion instead of the killed commander, just as Alexander Matrosov became a symbol of those who closed the enemy embrasure with his body, Nikolai Gastello - those who, sacrificing their lives, sent a burning plane to a cluster of enemies.

Alexey Eremenko in Peaceful time he honestly worked on the fertile Ukrainian land, and when the harsh military hard times came, he went to defend it from enemies and died. He did not have a single military award and was not even awarded it for his last heroic battle. Therefore, when our statesmen during the celebrations name the heroes, let them remember the name of Alexei Eremenko. Let this be a posthumous award, albeit belated, to the former junior political officer who stepped into immortality.

Let's agree: thanks to the front-line photojournalist, who captured the heroic moment, today we bow to the memory of a particular hero, and pay tribute to the greatness of the image of the Red Army commander that has developed in the people's memory, who continues earthly, but I want to say that eternal life. After all, this is about such a universal Russian moment, the front-line poet Alexander Mezhirov wrote his great lines (despite the ideological component, which in no way detract from the greatness of the sacrificial feat):

Burned bridges
On the roads from Brest to Moscow.
The soldiers were walking
Looking away from the refugees.
And on the towers
Buried in arable land KV
Heavy drops of rain dried up.

And no cover
From Stalingrad apartments
Bill "Maxim"
And Rodimtsev felt the ice.
And then
barely audible
said
commander:
- Communists, forward! .. Communists, forward!

Whoever he was, this commander or political worker of the Red Army, who rose under enemy fire and raised our soldiers behind him, he forever immortalized by his feat, became an image of courage and selflessness for many generations of Russian people.

There are no nameless heroes - there are heroes whose names were forgotten by their descendants.

Almost every Soviet person knows this photo. It was first published in front-line newspapers in 1942. At that time, few people knew the name of the person depicted in the picture. Only 23 years later, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Victory, his name became known to the general public: Alexey Gordeevich Eremenko, a native of the village of Tersyanka, Zaporozhye region.

This man raised the company with Willpower. He died a few seconds after the picture was taken. This photo is called "Combat". It is not staged and is not a frame from the film.
The legendary shot was taken on July 12, 1942 near the village of Horoshee (now the village of Horoshee, Slavyanoserbsky district, Luhansk region) between the Lugan and Lozovaya rivers. Photographer Max Alpert managed to take a picture of a Russian soldier raising a company of soldiers to attack, and immediately a fragment of a shell broke the camera. The photographer decided that the frames were spoiled and did not write down the name of the person he photographed. Later, developing the film, he saw that the frame turned out to be excellent.

After some time, the identity of the person in the photo was determined - his name was Alexei Gordeevich Eremenko, born in 1906. Here is what an eyewitness, Alexander Makarov, said about those events:

"The Nazis rushed to attack after attack. There were many killed and wounded. Our greatly depleted regiment was already repulsing the tenth or eleventh attack. The Nazis climbed right through to Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk), which was about thirty kilometers away. By the end of the day, the company commander was wounded. After fierce bombing, with the support of tanks and artillery, the Nazis went on another attack.And then, rising to his full height, with the words: "Follow me! For the Motherland! Forward!", Eremenko dragged the company along towards the chains of the Nazis. The political instructor died, but the attack was repulsed."

Despite the fact that Aleksey Eremenko had the position of junior political instructor, the world remembered him as an unnamed battalion commander. The fact is that while fiddling with the broken apparatus in the trench, the photographer did not follow the situation for some time, but heard how the chain was transmitted: "The battalion commander was killed." The name and position of the commander remained unknown to the author, but what he heard later gave a reason to call the picture that way.

There are no nameless heroes - there are heroes whose names were forgotten by their descendants.

Addition. I would like to add a few touches. Firstly, Aleksey Gordeevich Eremenko, as you all can see, is a Ukrainian. Rather, the Soviet man, who received a wonderful strong beautiful body and belonged to the glorious, noble Slavic nationality of the Ukrainians, equal among equals, among the many peoples, nationalities and nationalities of the USSR, who voluntarily gave his life for the sake of OUR WITH YOU peaceful, happy and carefree bestial life of moral freaks . Secondly, think about everything, and especially the infernal entities and their zombie hirelings (bastards and scoundrels who protect other people's interests for selfish reasons), everything in history moves in a circle (or rather in a spiral, it all depends on your location in the Universe) and the hero-legend of our living history with you ALWAYS FOUND spiritual grandchildren and great-grandchildren, successors of his glorious deeds and traditions. So the result will be the same. These are the laws... And ignorance of the laws does not exempt from responsibility. The forces of darkness are strong, but their fate is already sealed :)

It is noteworthy that Max Alpert at first did not know the name and surname of his hero. bright photography lived its own life - it was perceived as one of the symbols of the war. Attempts to find the "battalion commander" were made repeatedly, but at first unsuccessfully. Only in 1974 did it become clear that the real commander of the company, Lieutenant Petrenko, who was wounded, was replaced in battle by political instructor Eremenko. Alpert's widow and son recognized him in the Alpert frame published in the newspaper. They provided their own pre-war photographs of Eremenko, and the examination confirmed that this was the same person.
For the political officer, the counteroffensive in the Khoroshiy area was the last. According to one version, Eremenko really died on the same day - July 12 - when Alpert captured him. According to another, he was killed in hand-to-hand combat later, when the photojournalist was not around. A colleague of the political instructor Alexander Makarov said that during the battle, Eremenko inspired the Red Army soldiers with the following cries: “Follow me! For the Motherland! Forward!".
“They fought with rifle butts and bayonets. The Nazis faltered and ran. Soon I saw Eremenko in one of the trenches. He was falling slowly. I ran to him and realized that the junior political instructor no longer needed help, ”Lt. Col. Vasily Berezubchak described the circumstances of the death of the political instructor.
Alexei Eremenko rested in a mass grave. It is noteworthy that in the "funeral" received by the Eremenko family, it was written that their husband and father had been missing since January 1942, which was not true. After 32 years, a corrected version was sent to the widow from the draft board.
The image of political instructor Eremenko was minted on Russian coins of 1995 and 2005. Several monuments are also based on Alpert's photograph, incl. a monument in the Slavyanoserbsky region by sculptor Ivan Chumak, erected at the site of the alleged death of Eremenko on the Bakhmutskaya road. It is dedicated to the feat of all army political officers and commissars, who played a big role in motivating the fighters for the Fatherland.

70 years ago, on July 12, 1942, the junior political instructor of the 220th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division of the 18th Army Alexei Eremenko died a hero's death. The political instructor was killed replacing the wounded company commander Senior Lieutenant Petrenko.

The moment when Eremenko raises the fighters in a counterattack is captured in the famous photograph of the famous Soviet photographer Max Alpert "Combat". This was Eremenko's last counterattack - successful, but he died in the same battle ... The photojournalist was on the battlefield near the village of Good between the Lugan and Lozovaya rivers, in a trench a little ahead of the defense line. He saw the commander rise and immediately photographed him. At the same moment, a fragment shattered the lens of the camera. The correspondent considered that the film had died and the frame was irretrievably lost. Soon he heard how the chain was transmitted: "The battalion commander was killed." The name and position of the commander remained unknown to the author, but what he heard later gave a reason to call the picture that way.

Later it turned out that the film was intact and the frame with the battalion commander too. The photograph was published in front-line newspapers in 1942. But when shoulder straps were introduced in the army, they did not print a picture of an officer with the old insignia. So this frame lay in the personal archive of Max Alpert for 23 years, until it got to a photo exhibition dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Great Victory, and was not published in the Pravda newspaper.

The author has received many letters from the most different people who recognized their relative in the commander. However, only one claim was confirmed. Ivan Eremenko, the son of the deceased political officer, recognized his father as soon as he saw the photo in Pravda.

“Already my heart sank,” Ivan told the weekly “2000”. - Showed the picture to the older sisters Nina and Shura. They also recognized their father. The hero's wife also "looked and immediately wept - she found out." “I then worked as a deputy director of the plant,” the son continues, “I wrote a letter to Moscow, to Pravda, asking me to tell where this photograph appeared in the newspaper. I receive a letter from the editors - it contains the address of the author of the picture, Max Vladimirovich Alpert.

Then there was a personal meeting with a photographer, to whom Ivan gave 10 pre-war photographs of his father. The examination was carried out by specialists from the KGB Decryption Institute of the USSR, the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Medical Examination of the USSR Ministry of Justice. The military writer Sergei Sergeevich Smirnov, as well as the Ministry of Defense, helped a lot. A forensic portrait examination was also carried out. It took the experts a long time to say with 100% certainty: yes, this is political instructor Eremenko.

It would seem that the truth has been established. It is also confirmed by eyewitnesses, for example, a former soldier of the medical platoon of the 220th regiment, later major political worker Alexander Matveyevich Makarov, who told the journal Science and Life in 1987: “The Nazis frantically rushed attack after attack. There were many killed and wounded. Our greatly depleted regiment was already repulsing the tenth or eleventh attack. The Nazis climbed right through to Voroshilovgrad, to which there were about thirty kilometers. By the end of the day, the company commander Senior Lieutenant Petrenko was wounded. After a fierce bombing, with the support of tanks and artillery, the Nazis launched another attack. And then, rising to his full height, with the words: “Follow me! For the Motherland! Forward! ”, Eremenko dragged the company along towards the chains of the Nazis. The attack was repulsed, but the political instructor died.”

And a veteran of the 285th division, reserve lieutenant colonel Vasily Sevastyanovich Berezubchak later told the weekly "2000" the following: "For eight months our division stood on the defensive, covering the Voroshilovgrad direction. Then, on the orders of General Grechko, she moved to a new line, taking up defense near the village of Good. Here a heated battle broke out, during which the political instructor Eremenko died. I find it hard to believe that the photo was taken elsewhere, during another fight. Because Eremenko was killed during the counterattack. However, in that battle there was no correspondent nearby ... And it was on the morning of July 12th. Heavy artillery fire fell upon us. We beat off the first attack. But during the second, the right flank of the division trembled. The soldiers began to withdraw. We were deaf, blind, many of us bled from our ears - our eardrums burst! I received an order from the divisional commander to restore the situation, to stop the soldiers, because the situation was critical. He ran towards the retreating ones. And then I saw Eremenko. He also ran across the fighters. Stop! Stop! he shouted. We lay down. They gathered people around them. We were few, a handful. But Eremenko decided to counterattack to restore the situation. This is not forgotten. He stood up to his full height, screamed, rushed to the attack. We burst into the trenches, hand-to-hand ensued. They fought with rifle butts and bayonets. The Nazis faltered and ran. Soon I saw Eremenko in one of the trenches. He was falling slowly. I ran to him and realized that the junior political instructor no longer needed help ... "

And yet, in the new century, there were those who doubted the truth of those events, the authenticity of the photograph, the feat of the hero. There were versions that the picture was staged, taken at the exercises before the war, that the political instructor was not a political instructor at all, that he did not have the same number of cubes in his buttonhole, that the political instructor could not be a commander at all. The photo is examined under a magnifying glass, improperly dressed soldiers are noticed in the background, and the initial entry in the documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, according to which A. G. Eremenko was listed as missing back in January 1942 (facts when soldiers, even after the funeral, they returned home alive, it seems like it does not exist for the critics of "Combat").

And of course, lovers of “historical truth”, which for some reason is always based on exposing a certain “lie”, despite the fact that the veracity of this “lie” has been proven by numerous documents, there is already a disgust for “communist propaganda” that has already set the teeth on edge. And again, it would seem, what is so propagandistic in Alpert's photo? The victorious Russian soldier (however, Eremenko is Ukrainian, but still Russian ...), simple, not polished, no hammers and sickles are visible, there is not a word or a hint about Stalin, he raises soldiers to attack ... How many such heroes there were - survivors in that war and the dead! And the picture really turned out wonderful from all points of view. No wonder the whole world admired him. Such luck is rare for a photojournalist. He became a symbol of military courage, valor and courage of all defenders of the Fatherland. He stepped across the planet, as if renouncing his creator, stood on a par with such creations as the poster "Motherland is calling!" and a monument to a Soviet soldier in Treptow Park.

So why such disbelief in the real existence of both the feat and the hero? Everything becomes clear when you find out the biography of Alexei Eremenko: he is a communist, from a simple working family with many children, who had to start his career early. At the time of the creation of the first collective farm in the Zaporozhye region (it then bore the name of Krasin), Alexei was the head of the Komsomol cell. Because of his ability to manage people, he was first appointed a foreman, then a party organizer, and then the chairman of a collective farm.

The son of Alexei Eremenko says: “He was a famous person in the region. Three times he represented the farm at VDNKh ... He spoke at the All-Union Conference of Workers Agriculture. He was the first to illuminate the villages in the region. The last time Ivan Eremenko saw his father was in September 1941: “It was during the evacuation, in a forest belt near the city. My father was already in the military, although he had a reservation. His statement has been preserved in the archives of the military enlistment office: “Please send me to the front. I consider myself quite healthy to beat the fascist reptile ... "

Eremenko just turned out to be a real communist. This is the one who led the collective farm before the war, and in battle took over the leadership of the attack. Being a communist in those days meant having the only privilege - to be ahead and not expect any awards and honors. He didn't wait, that's why "Combat" was unknown for so long. The only award of Alexei Eremenko is the Order of the Badge of Honor, which he was awarded before the war for hard work chairman of the advanced collective farm. The groom of the same collective farm received the Order of Lenin - Eremenko's farm annually sent 20 trotters to the Red Army.

And political instructor Eremenko, the famous “Combat”, has no military awards ... In the 70s, they petitioned Brezhnev to reward the hero posthumously. Brezhnev, having learned, shed a tear ... But it did not come to the execution of documents. Already in independent Ukraine, the son of Eremenko appealed to the president of the country, but received an answer from the Administration: they don’t reward for past merits ...

And yet he was! Unknown "Combat", which gained a name. The photograph itself speaks of the ordinariness and majesty of his feat. Everyone knows "Combat", many now know that the photo shows Alexei Eremenko. Let's remember that he was a communist.