During the years of the Great Patriotic War, not much was known about the incredible feat of a simple Russian soldier Kolka Sirotinin, as well as about the hero himself. Perhaps no one would have ever known about the feat of a twenty-year-old artilleryman. If not for one case.

In the summer of 1942, an officer of the 4th died near Tula tank division Wehrmacht Friedrich Fenfeld. Soviet soldiers discovered his diary. From its pages, some details of that very last battle of Senior Sergeant Sirotinin became known.

It was the 25th day of the war ...

In the summer of 1941, the 4th tank division of the Guderian group, one of the most talented German generals, broke through to the Belarusian city of Krichev. Parts of the 13th Soviet Army were forced to retreat. To cover the withdrawal of the artillery battery of the 55th rifle regiment the commander left artilleryman Nikolai Sirotinin with a gun.

The order was brief: to hold up the German tank column on the bridge over the river Dobrost, and then, if possible, catch up with our own. The senior sergeant carried out only the first half of the order...

Sirotinin took up a position in a field near the village of Sokolnichi. The cannon sank in high rye. There is not a single noticeable landmark for the enemy nearby. But from here the highway and the river were clearly visible.

On the morning of July 17, a column of 59 tanks and armored vehicles with infantry appeared on the highway. When the lead tank reached the bridge, the first - successful - shot rang out. With the second shell, Sirotinin set fire to an armored personnel carrier at the tail of the column, thereby creating a traffic jam. Nikolai fired and fired, knocking out car after car.

Sirotinin fought alone, he was both a gunner and a loader. He had 60 shells in his ammunition load and a 76-millimeter cannon - an excellent weapon against tanks. And he made a decision: to continue the battle until the ammunition runs out.

The Nazis rushed to the ground in a panic, not understanding where the shooting was coming from. The guns were fired at random, in squares. Indeed, on the eve of their intelligence could not detect Soviet artillery in the vicinity, and the division advanced without any special precautions. The Germans made an attempt to clear the blockage by pulling the wrecked tank off the bridge with two other tanks, but they were also knocked out. The armored car, which tried to ford the river, got bogged down in the swampy bank, where it was destroyed. For a long time the Germans failed to determine the location of the well-camouflaged gun; they believed that a whole battery was fighting them.

This unique battle lasted a little over two hours. The crossing was blocked. By the time Nikolai's position was discovered, he had only three shells left. Sirotinin refused the offer to surrender and fired from a carbine to the last. Having entered the rear of Sirotinin on motorcycles, the Germans destroyed a lone gun with mortar fire. At the position they found a lone cannon and a soldier.

The result of the battle of Senior Sergeant Sirotinin against General Guderian is impressive: after the battle on the banks of the Dobrost River, the Nazis lost 11 tanks, 7 armored vehicles, 57 soldiers and officers.

The stamina of the Soviet fighter aroused the respect of the Nazis. The commander of the tank battalion, Colonel Erich Schneider, ordered to bury a worthy enemy with military honors.

From the diary of Lieutenant Friedrich Hönfeld of the 4th Panzer Division:

July 17, 1941. Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening they buried an unknown Russian soldier. He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was amazed at his bravery… Oberst (colonel – editorial note) said in front of the grave that if all the Fuhrer’s soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?

From the testimony of Olga Verzhbitskaya, a resident of the village of Sokolnichi:

I, Verzhbitskaya Olga Borisovna, born in 1889, a native of Latvia (Latgale), lived before the war in the village of Sokolnichi, Krichevsky district, together with my sister.

We knew Nikolai Sirotinin with his sister until the day of the battle. He was with my friend, bought milk. He was very polite, always helping older women to get water from the well and in other hard work.

I remember well the evening before the fight. On a log at the gate of the Grabsky house, I saw Nikolai Sirotinin. He sat and thought about something. I was very surprised that everyone was leaving, and he was sitting.

When the fight started, I was not at home yet. I remember how tracer bullets flew. He walked for about two or three hours. In the afternoon, the Germans gathered at the place where the Sirotinin gun stood. We, the locals, were also forced to come there. To me, as knowing German, the chief German of about fifty with orders, tall, bald, gray-haired, ordered to translate his speech to local people. He said that the Russian fought very well, that if the Germans had fought like that, they would have taken Moscow long ago, that this is how a soldier should defend his homeland - fatherland.

Then a medallion was taken out of the pocket of our dead soldier's tunic. I remember firmly that it was written there “the city of Orel”, to Vladimir Sirotinin (I don’t remember his patronymic), that the name of the street was, as I remember, not Dobrolyubova, but Freight or Lomovaya, I remember that the house number was two digits. But we could not know who this Sirotinin Vladimir was - the father, brother, uncle of the murdered man or someone else - we could not.

German chief boss told me: “Take this document and write to your relatives. Let a mother know what a hero her son was and how he died.” Then a young German officer who was standing at the grave of Sirotinin came up and snatched a piece of paper and a medallion from me and said something rudely.

The Germans fired a volley of rifles in honor of our soldier and put a cross on the grave, hung up his helmet, pierced by a bullet.

I myself saw the body of Nikolai Sirotinin well, even when he was lowered into the grave. His face was not covered in blood, but the tunic on the left side had a large bloody stain, his helmet was pierced, and there were many shell casings lying around.

Since our house was not far from the battlefield, next to the road to Sokolniki, the Germans were standing near us. I myself heard how they spoke for a long time and admiringly about the feat of the Russian soldier, counting the shots and hits. Some of the Germans, even after the funeral, stood at the cannon and the grave for a long time and talked quietly.

February 29, 1960

Testimony of the telephone operator M. I. Grabskaya:

I, Grabskaya Maria Ivanovna, born in 1918, worked as a telephone operator at DEU 919 in Krichev, lived in my native village of Sokolnichi, three kilometers from the city of Krichev.

I remember well the events of July 1941. About a week before the arrival of the Germans, Soviet artillerymen settled in our village. The headquarters of their battery was in our house, the battery commander was a senior lieutenant named Nikolai, his assistant was a lieutenant named Fedya, of the fighters, I remember the Red Army soldier Nikolai Sirotinin the most. The fact is that the senior lieutenant very often called this fighter and entrusted him with both tasks as the most intelligent and experienced.

He was a little above average height, dark brown hair, a simple, cheerful face. When Sirotinin and senior lieutenant Nikolai decided to dig a dugout for the locals, I saw how he deftly threw the earth, noticed that he was apparently not from the boss's family. Nicholas jokingly replied:

“I am a worker from Orel, and I am no stranger to physical labor. We, the Oryols, know how to work.”

Today, in the village of Sokolnichi, there is no grave in which the Germans buried Nikolai Sirotinin. Three years after the war, his remains were transferred to the mass grave of Soviet soldiers in Krichev.

Pencil drawing made from memory by a colleague of Sirotinin in the 1990s

The inhabitants of Belarus remember and honor the feat of the brave artilleryman. In Krichev there is a street named after him, a monument has been erected. But, despite the fact that the feat of Sirotinin, thanks to the efforts of the employees of the Archive of the Soviet Army, was recognized back in 1960, the title of Hero Soviet Union he was not assigned. A painfully absurd circumstance got in the way: the soldier's family did not have his photograph. And it is necessary to apply for a high rank.

Today there is only a pencil sketch made after the war by one of his colleagues. In the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory, Senior Sergeant Sirotinin was awarded the Order Patriotic War first degree. Posthumously. Such is the story.

Memory

In 1948, the remains of Nikolai Sirotinin were reburied in a mass grave (according to the military burial record card on the OBD Memorial website - in 1943), on which a monument was erected in the form of a sculpture of a soldier grieving for his dead comrades, and on the marble boards in the list of the buried is indicated surname Sirotinina N.V.

In 1960, Sirotinin was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class.

In 1961, a monument in the form of an obelisk with the name of the hero was erected at the site of the feat near the highway, next to which a real 76-mm gun was installed on a pedestal. In the city of Krichev, a street is named after Sirotinin.

A memorial plaque with brief reference about N. V. Sirotinin.

Museum of Military Glory in high school No. 17 of the city of Orel, there are materials dedicated to N. V. Sirotinin.

In 2015, the council of school No. 7 of the city of Orel petitioned for the school to be named after Nikolai Sirotinin. Nikolai's sister, Taisiya Vladimirovna, attended the celebrations. The name for the school was chosen by the students themselves on the basis of their search and information work.

When reporters asked Nikolai's sister why Nikolay volunteered to cover the retreat of the division, Taisiya Vladimirovna replied: "My brother could not have done otherwise."

The feat of Kolka Sirotinin is an example of loyalty to the Motherland for all our youth.

Which one of us is Soviet times did not know about the legendary 28 Panfilov and Young Guards, Alexander Matrosov and Nikolai Gastello, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and General Karbyshev, Alexei Maresyev and Musa Jalil.
But few of us have heard about the desperate battle near the Belarusian Krichev in the summer of 41, when a 20-year-old guy - Nikolai Sirotinin - single-handedly stopped the German column, knocking out 11 tanks and 7 armored vehicles. And thus he was able to challenge the saying "One man is not a warrior."
I would like to tell about this hero and his feat.

Kolya was born on March 7, 1921 in the city of Orel.
Father - Vladimir Kuzmich Sirotinin (1888-1961), locomotive engineer.
Mom - Elena Korneevna (1898-1963), housewife.
There are 5 children in the family, Kolya is the 2nd in seniority.
Mom noted his diligence, affectionate disposition and help in raising younger children.
After graduating from school, Nikolai went to work at the Tokmash plant as a turner.
On October 5, 1940, Nikolai was drafted into the army.
He was assigned to the 55th rifle regiment in the city of Polotsk, Byelorussian SSR.
Of the documents about Nikolai, only the conscript's medical record has been preserved.
According to the medical record, he is not a hero at all. Sirotinin was of a small build - 164 centimeters and weighed only 53 kilograms.
By June 1941, the smart, hardworking, lucky, smart and skillful gunner was already a senior sergeant, a gun commander.
By the beginning of the war, his 17th rifle division was relocated to the border of the Ditva River.

On June 22, 1941, during an air raid, Nikolai was wounded.
The wound was light, and two days later he went to fight at the front.
It so happened that he fought off his division.

Here is what the commander of the 55th regiment, Major Skrypka, later wrote, explaining what happened and how then:

“On the evening of June 24, an order was received from the division commander to withdraw to the eastern bank of the Ditva River. Leaving a rifle company at a height as a rear outpost, the regiment withdrew to a new line at night. The outpost was to join the regiment in the morning. However, at dawn, from the side of the height, the rumble of a strong battle was heard. In addition, the regiment was ordered not to linger at the turn of Ditva, to retreat to Lida. As a result, the outpost did not return to the regiment. Her fate is unknown."

Nicholas was part of this outpost, which was surrounded and defeated at dawn on June 25.
But he managed to survive, to get out of the encirclement with a weapon. And he went to his.
He traveled 500 kilometers to the east until he got to the front line, in the Sokolnichi area (July 9-10). His 55th Rifle Regiment was retreating in an organized manner in the other direction to the southeast - to Kalinkovichi.
In fact, Sirotinin was under control, consider almost a "penalty box".
Therefore, he was assigned to a consolidated battalion, which was entrusted with holding the defense of Krichev from the west (there are two roads - Varshavka and the old road, just north of it).
Nikolai was taken over by Captain Kim.
He was sent to the artillery battery, where the young gunner commanded one of the guns of the battery.
The battery commander (his last name could not be established) and artilleryman Nikolai settled in the house of Anastasia Evmenovna Grabskaya.
Nikolai Sirotinin was remembered by the villagers as a quiet, polite boy.

Grabskoy's daughter Maria Ivanovna recalled:

“I remember the events of July 1941 well. About a week before the arrival of the Germans, Soviet artillerymen settled in our village. The headquarters of their battery was in our house, the battery commander was a senior lieutenant named Nikolai, his assistant was a lieutenant named Fedya, of the fighters, I remember the Red Army soldier Nikolai Sirotinin the most. The fact is that the senior lieutenant very often called this fighter and entrusted him with both tasks as the most intelligent and experienced.
He was slightly above average height, dark blond hair, a simple, cheerful, polite, calm face, and mischievous eyes, with gold. When Sirotinin and senior lieutenant Nikolai decided to dig a dugout for the locals, I saw how he deftly threw the earth, noticed that he was apparently not from the boss's family. Nicholas jokingly replied:
“I am a worker from Orel, and I am no stranger to physical labor. We, the Oryols, know how to work.”

A resident of the village Olga Borisovna Verzhbitskaya recalled:

“We knew Nikolai Sirotinin with his sister until the day of the battle. He was with my friend, bought milk.
He was very polite, always helping older women to get water from the well and in other hard work.
I remember well the evening before the fight. On a log at the gate of the Grabsky house, I saw Nikolai Sirotinin. He sat and thought about something. I was very surprised that everyone was leaving, and he was sitting.”

I must say that in early July 1941, the tanks of the 2nd Panzer Group of Heinz Guderian, one of the most talented German generals, broke through the weak, thin and rare line of defense of our troops near Bykhov and began to force the Dnieper.
Crushing and knocking down our weak barriers, they rushed east along the Sozh River, to Slavgorod, and further through Cherikov to the city of Krichev, in order to then surround our troops defending Smolensk with a blow from the south.
On the morning of the 15th, faint peals of cannon fire were heard from Mogilev.
Every hour they became louder, and the previously deserted Warsaw highway was filled with a stream of refugees and retreating units.
Under the pressure of the 4th Panzer Division, commanded by von Langermann, units of the 13th Army of the Red Army of the Army fought back in front of superior enemy forces.
And they took up defensive positions behind the Sozh, on its low southeastern shore, in the most beautiful forests.
The western bank of the Sozh River is very steep and high, cut in many places by deep ravines with very steep slopes and almost treeless. There were several such ravines along the road from the city of Cherikov to Krichev.
It should be noted that by July 16, the encirclement ring was slammed north of Krichev, where units of the 16th and 20th armies were surrounded near Smolensk. Therefore, the capture of Krichev, as the last frontier on the right bank of the Sozh River, was given special importance.
Early in the morning of July 17, 1941, in one of the ravines, a group of our fighters, apparently going on reconnaissance, ambushed a column of units of the 4th Wehrmacht Panzer Division. They bombarded the head patrol of a huge column with grenades, fired at it and left the battle along the ravines. The soldiers managed to cross the Sozh and informed the command of the German tank division advancing on Krichev.
At that time, units of the 6th Infantry Division were in Krichev, battered in battles, having lost most of their artillery and other equipment.
They, after the news of the tanks, received an order to cross over the Sozh.
But parts of the division could not do this quickly - there were not enough crossing facilities.
And so it was necessary to delay the Germans for several hours in order to give everyone the opportunity to cross.
The commander of the artillery battery made a decision: to leave one gun with a crew of 2 people at the bridge over the Dobrost River on the 476th kilometer of the Moscow-Warsaw highway to cover the retreat with the task of delaying the tank column.
“Two people with a cannon will remain here,” said the battery commander.
Nikolai Sirotinin volunteered.
The second was the commander himself.
The order was brief: to hold up the German tank column on the bridge over the river Dobrost as much as possible.
And then, if possible, catch up with their ...
Many years later, reporters found Nikolai's sister, 80-year-old Taisiya Shestakova, in the city of Orel.
To their question why it was Kolya who volunteered to cover the retreat of our army, Taisiya Vladimirovna raised her eyebrows in surprise:
"My brother could not do otherwise."

It was the 25th day of the war ...
Having volunteered to cover the retreat of his unit, Nikolai took up an advantageous firing position. He installed an anti-tank 45-mm cannon on the outskirts of the village of Sokolnichi - on a low hillock, right on a collective farm rye field near the Dobrost River.
The low green shield of the cannon was almost completely hidden among the ears of corn.
The place was ideal for stealthy shelling. It was about 200 meters to the road leading to Krichev. From here, the highway, a small river and a bridge across it were perfectly visible, which opened the way for the enemy to the east. And there was a swampy area near the road. Among the rare tufts of low sedge, water gleamed in puddles and barrels - pits filled with water.
And this meant that the tanks would not be able, in which case, to move either to the left or to the right.
Sirotinin was alone at the cannon. He understood what he was getting into. The task was one - to hold out as long as possible in order to buy time for the division ...

At dawn, the rumble of enemy engines came from the forest. The shelling of the village began. Then an enemy column crawled out onto the highway like a giant spotted boa constrictor - 59 tanks and armored vehicles with infantry.
The Nazis are approaching...
Well, the sergeant, who was an experienced artilleryman, chose the moment when to hit the enemy.
When the lead tank reached the bridge, the first - successful - shot rang out. The sergeant hit him.
With the second shell, Sirotinin set fire to an armored personnel carrier at the tail of the column. And thus created a traffic jam.
The column stopped, panic began. The mousetrap closed.
Thus, the combat mission was completed - the tank column was delayed.
And the battery commander, who was standing at the bridge and correcting the fire, was wounded. And he was forced to retreat towards the Soviet positions.
However, Sirotinin refused to back down.
Nikolay knew that he was needed here and now. He had 60 more shells. And in front were enemy vehicles that he had to destroy.
The Germans made an attempt to clear the blockage by dragging the wrecked tank off the bridge with two other tanks.
The sergeant opened fire again.
And these tanks were knocked out.
The armored car, which tried to ford the Dobrost river, got stuck in the marshy shore. There he found her next shell.
Nikolai fired and fired, knocking out tank after tank...
German tanks ran into Kolya Sirotinin, as in the Brest Fortress.
It was real hell.
Tanks caught fire one after another.
The infantry, hiding behind the armor, lay down.
The German commanders are at a loss. They cannot understand the source of the heavy fire. Seems like a whole battery is going down. Aimed fire. IN German column- 59 tanks, dozens of machine gunners and motorcyclists. And all this power is powerless before the fire of the Russians. Where did this battery come from? Indeed, on the eve of their intelligence could not detect Soviet artillery in the vicinity. And reported that the way was open. Therefore, the division advanced without any special precautions.
The Nazis did not yet know that there was only one soldier standing in their way, that there was only one soldier in the field, if he was Russian.
Sirotinin fought alone, himself and the gunner, himself and the loader.
German tanks tried to move off the road to attack the anti-tank gun, shoot at close range, crush them with tracks, but one after another got stuck in the swampy area. One fell so deep into the hole with water that it stood up almost vertically, and Nikolai easily fell into the engine compartment. The tank immediately exploded.
The sergeant was already firing on the seventh tank, when the Germans finally accurately spotted his firing position and opened heavy fire on the cannon.
But due to the fact that she was standing on the reverse slope of the peak, the shells either burst on the slope of the hillock, or flew overhead. The low slanted shield rang with bullets. One of the shells exploded at the very top of the hillock, about ten meters to the left of the gun. And small fragments touched the left side and arm of the artilleryman Sirotinin. He hastily bandaged them and continued firing, throwing spent cartridges from under his feet.
The road was covered with black smoke from burning vehicles.
There were fewer shells. And Nikolai began to aim more carefully, to shoot less often. There was no need to hurry anymore - the column was locked in front and behind by burning equipment, there was nowhere for them to move out - there was a swamp around.
He noticed infantrymen running across the meadow - trying to get around it.
The gun became more frequent, releasing fragmentation shells that burst under the feet of the Germans. Soon the surviving foot soldiers crawled back.
Soon the German infantry tried again to bypass the cannon. But after three shots with buckshot, they lay down and began to crawl away.
At that moment, three explosions rang out in the column one after another - tank towers soared into the sky.
A gust of wind blew the smoke aside, and Sergeant Sirotinin saw a surviving armored personnel carrier in the column, next to two more of the same. He started shooting again. All three caught fire. The Germans, who were hiding behind them, ran to the tail of the column. Sirotinin conducted them with fragmentation shells.
Again a gust of wind blew the smoke away, and he found another whole tank. The sergeant fired at it several times until it finally caught fire.
Then he hit an armored car, hung with canisters of gasoline. The column of flame rose ten meters and dispersed the smoke. Nikolai was able to see that a tank was hiding behind the wrecked armored personnel carrier, occasionally firing at him. The sergeant saw only part of the T 2 turret.
He entered into a duel with German tankers and won it.
Then Nikolai turned the barrel to the left and fired several fragmentation shells at the tail of the column.
One after another, he aimed at tanks and armored cars, hit. Everything exploded, flew, there was black smoke from burning equipment in the air.
Angry Germans opened mortar fire on Sirotinin.
Mines fell one after another around the cannon. The fragments mowed down the rye, rang on the shield. One of them damaged the sight, the other broke the wheel. Two fragments also caught the gunner.
The mines howled again. A large fragment hit the frame, half breaking it. Then the cannon shuddered as small shells hit and exploded.
The gun was broken: the shield, wheels, sight and vertical aiming mechanism were damaged.
Nikolay could not do anything else - the cannon could only fire once. At that moment, the mortar shelling stopped.
He got up to load the forty-five for the last time.
At that moment machine guns fired from behind. And Nikolai fell, pierced by bullets, on a broken gun.
German motorcyclists went around him through the village, entered the firing position from the rear and hit him in the back with bursts.
This is how artillery sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin died - a simple Russian guy who gave his life to protect his comrades.
Our 6th Infantry Division managed to cross over the Sozh and take up defenses there, which it, together with other units of the 13th Army, held for almost a month, holding down parts of the Nazis. And only then, in mid-August, broke through from the encirclement ...

This unique battle lasted two and a half hours.
11 tanks and 7 armored vehicles, 57 soldiers and officers were missing the Nazis after this battle on the banks of the Dobrost River, where the Russian soldier Nikolai Sirotinin stood in the barrier.

Now there is a monument in that place:

“Here at dawn on July 17, 1941, he entered into single combat with a column of fascist tanks and, in a two-hour battle, repulsed all enemy attacks, Senior Artillery Sergeant Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin, who gave his life for the freedom and independence of our Motherland.”

At first, the Nazis did not believe that only one Soviet soldier was holding them back. They put several villagers against the wall, threatening that they would shoot if they did not betray the rest. But there was no one to give out. They were opposed by one boy - short, frail.
Shocked by his courage and fearlessness, the Germans walked around the cannon for a long time, counted empty charging boxes and looked at the highway littered with equipment and corpses.
The stamina of the Soviet fighter aroused the respect of the Nazis.
The commander of the tank battalion, Colonel Erich Schneider (later became a lieutenant general), ordered to bury a worthy enemy with military honors.
The Germans gathered the inhabitants of the village of Sokolnichi and arranged a solemn military funeral for Sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin.
They buried him, passed by in formation and gave the fallen hero a military salute with three volleys of rifles. The German officers decided to use this feat in order to make their soldiers the same German patriots as this Russian artilleryman.

Ober-lieutenant of the 4th Panzer Division Friedrich Hoenfeld (died near Tula in the summer of 1942) wrote in his diary:

July 17, 1941. Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening they buried an unknown Russian soldier. He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone marveled at his courage... Oberst before the grave said that if all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?

Olga Verzhbitskaya recalled:

“In the afternoon, the Germans gathered at the place where the Sirotinin gun stood. We, the locals, were also forced to come there. As someone who knows German, the chief German of about fifty with orders, tall, bald, gray-haired, ordered me to translate his speech to local people. He said that the Russian fought very well, that if the Germans had fought like that, they would have taken Moscow long ago, that this is how a soldier should defend his homeland - fatherland. Then, from the pocket of the tunic of our dead soldier, they took out a medallion with a note about who and where. The chief German told me: “Take it and write to your relatives. Let a mother know what a hero her son was and how he died.” I was afraid to do it... Then, standing in the grave and covering Sirotinin's body with a Soviet raincoat, a young German officer tore out a piece of paper and a medallion from me and said something rudely. The Germans fired a volley of rifles in honor of our soldier and put a cross on the grave, hung up his helmet, pierced by a bullet. I myself saw the body of Nikolai Sirotinin well, even when he was lowered into the grave. His face was not covered in blood, but the tunic on the left side had a large bloody stain, his helmet was pierced, and there were many shell casings lying around.
Since our house was not far from the battlefield, next to the road to Sokolniki, the Germans were standing near us. I myself heard how they talked for a long time and admiringly about the feat of the Russian soldier, counting the shots and hits. Some of the Germans, even after the funeral, stood by the cannon and the grave for a long time and talked quietly.

Now in the village of Sokolnichi this grave is not. Because the body of the guy, three years after the war, was transferred to a mass grave in the city of Krichev, Mogilev region.

Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin was never presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
And for his feat only in 1960 he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (posthumously).
The name of the hero, unfortunately, did not become well known.
And this is probably one of the greatest injustices in the history of that time ...

One poet (I don’t know his name) wrote a poem about this:

From anger at the authorities you boil:
- And why is the feat forgotten?
- Sirotinin - a hero in people's memory
And why is it not presented to the Star of the Hero?

Nicholas in his youth
Voluntarily defended the banner of Freedom
His Fatherland and its peoples,
When the enemy sowed misfortune to everyone.

Birds didn't sing to the sergeant that day
They quieted down or flew away somewhere.
Terrible minutes sat in anticipation
In the brain and anxious tocsin rang.

He covered the Moscow-Warsaw highway
Near the river Dobrost - near the village of Sokolnichi
In Belarus, the battle was bloody,
Threw projectiles-swords at enemy tanks.

Steel monsters lit up like a torch
And their towers, like rooks, flew in an instant,
Blue sky smoked - they threw the stench,
For the fact that they trampled someone else's land.

Column - from fifty nine cars
And of these, eleven tanks were knocked out,
And six armored vehicles went to another world
With dozens of enemies broke from orbit.

Nikolai Sirotinin - one warrior in the field,
Who had both the strength of will and the strength of the spirit -
He really deserves the title of hero of the Motherland,
His feat to us, his grandchildren is a science...

Captain of the Red Army Dmitry Shevchenko was reburied in the village of Pavlodolskaya, next to the unmarked grave of his comrades-in-arms...

The Nazis rushed to the Caucasus

Not far from Mozdok (Republic of North Ossetia - Alania) stands the village of Pavlodolskaya. In the summer of 1942, during the summer offensive operation Germans to Stalingrad and North Caucasus, villages on the banks of the Terek were subjected to fierce bombing by enemy aircraft, and in early autumn, the advanced Nazi units made an attempt to cross the river.

The 9th Rifle Brigade, part of the 11th Guards Corps (formed in early August 1942 in Ordzhonikidze - now Vladikavkaz), stationed on the southern bank of the Terek, in the first days of September entered into an unequal battle with superior enemy forces trying to force the river and attack units Red Army in Kizlyar. Captain Dmitry Shevchenko at that time was part of a reconnaissance group in the village of Pavlodolskaya. Together with another fighter, he took up defense and prepared to repel an enemy attack. Fighting comrade killed almost immediately, but the Nazis could not take the village without loss. Captain Shevchenko alone held the defense until he was overtaken by death from an enemy bullet.

Later it turned out that Dmitry Shevchenko fired back from the Germans advancing on the village from the top floor of the bell tower. The only surviving witness, Polina Polyanskaya, who was 11 years old in the fall of 1942, recalls how she, along with other residents of the village, hid from the bombing in a local church. She remembered the Russian soldier who single-handedly held the defense on the bell tower.

“I saw him on the ceiling of the murdered man,” the woman says. “Bricks, laid pipes, so twisty, and he lay like that.”

Listed as missing

Captain of the Red Army Dmitry Shevchenko until recently was listed as missing. Years, decades passed, and historical justice finally prevailed. A group of German searchers arrived in Pavlodolskaya. According to the maps that they had in their hands, there was a burial place of about 1600 Wehrmacht soldiers in the village. What was their surprise when, at the place where the German officers were buried, they suddenly discovered a grave Soviet soldier. The case when the Nazis buried their enemies next to their soldiers is the rarest.

German search engines turned to their Russian colleagues for help. Our people began to make inquiries - they raised the archives, started looking for eyewitnesses. It was then that it turned out that next to the German burial was the grave of an officer of the Red Army, Dmitry Shevchenko. When, after the battle, the Germans gathered the dead, they discovered the body of a Soviet soldier, after which they buried him, paying tribute to the man who showed stamina and heroism.

The hero's name was returned

According to a member of the North Ossetian regional public organization“Memorial-Avia search squad” by Roman Ikoev had to work hard to return the name to the fearless warrior. Two buttons, a cartridge, a star from a cap and a ramrod were found in the soldier's grave (today these things are kept in the local museum). These data were clearly not enough. And then the search engines turned to the locals: they found out exactly when the battle with the Germans took place, after which they turned to the archives. According to the papers, it turned out that on that day a reconnaissance group advanced to Pavlodolsk. According to these data, Red Army captain Dmitry Shevchenko managed to get his name back.

But that is not all. Search engines from North Ossetia want to find the relatives of a fighter - one whose feat was admired even by enemies. If you have any information about this person, please let us know.

The remains of a Red Army hero were found in the Mozdok region of North Ossetia. The place where the burial was discovered was the point of fierce battles during the Great Patriotic War.

Enemy recognition

In the village of Pavlodolskaya in North Ossetia, German search engines arrived to look for their fallen soldiers. The foreigners were guided by the maps of the Wehrmacht, where 160 German graves were marked. Next to one of them, the search engines found the remains of a Soviet captain. As historians note, it is nonsense when the enemy is buried along with the dead from their troops.

Almost immediately, as soon as the grave of the Russian soldier was discovered, the specialists of the reburial service drew conclusions: the Red Army soldier was buried with military honors, formation and guard of honor. The feat of the Russian soldier delighted and amazed the Germans: the Red Army soldier was set as an example to German officers.

Captain's feat

Reburial specialists have already identified the hero. This is Captain Dmitry Shevchenko, who was previously listed as missing. The commander fought as part of the first battalion of the ninth brigade. When everyone left for the Terek, to the place of the company's new deployment, Dmitry Shevchenko, along with soldiers and scouts, remained in the village of Pavlodolskaya. Right at that moment locality suddenly attacked by the invaders. Almost immediately, Shevchenko lost his comrades-in-arms and was left alone to defend.

As local residents told 1tv.ru reporters, the captain’s feat is still remembered in the village. Yes, and how not to remember, if traces of shells are still visible on the bell tower of the local church - it was from there that Dmitry Shevchenko fired back to the last.

Polina Polyanskaya, who saw the terrible years as an 11-year-old girl, recalls: “We spent the night in the church throughout the war. The bombing was like this - bombing, bombing, bombs explode all around. I saw him on the ceiling of the dead man. Bricks, pipes laid, so twisty, and he lay like that.

Priceless details

The feat of Shevchenko helped the village of Pavlodolskaya survive. In the battle, which the captain fought alone, 250 German soldiers were destroyed. Now specialists from Germany are engaged in the search for their graves. The Russians also joined in the reconnaissance of military graves. And it's not only about finding the locations of the graves themselves, but also about extracting any information about the fighters and their fates. This data is sometimes extremely difficult to restore: name tokens or capsules with data are very rarely found during excavations. Therefore, any items that can be found in a military grave are of tremendous importance.

All the finds are carefully examined and they extract as much information as possible from them - they restore the erased inscriptions on bowlers and spoons, they try to "read" information about the deceased even from buttons or cartridges. Just two buttons, a cartridge, a star and a rod for cleaning weapons were found along with the remains of the hero Shevchenko. But even such a set would not help to establish the identity of what was found - local residents who knew their hero and the date of the battle in which he fell had already helped here.

Sergeant Sirotinin completed the main task: the column of tanks was delayed, the 6th Infantry Division was able to cross the Sozh River without loss.
Oberleutnant Friedrich Hönfeld's diary entries have been preserved:
“He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was surprised at his courage ... Oberst (colonel) before the grave said that if all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?
Olga Verzhbitskaya, a resident of the village of Sokolnichi, recalls: “In the afternoon, the Germans gathered at the place where the Sirotinin cannon stood. We, the locals, were also forced to come there. As someone who knows German, the chief German of about fifty with orders, tall, bald, gray-haired, ordered me to translate his speech to local people. He said that the Russian fought very well, that if the Germans had fought like that, they would have taken Moscow long ago, that this is how a soldier should defend his homeland - fatherland ... ".
The inhabitants of the village of Sokolniki and the Germans arranged a solemn funeral for Nikolai Sirotinin. The German soldiers gave the dead sergeant a military salute with three shots.
The memory of Nikolai Sirotinin
First, Sergeant Sirotinin was buried at the battlefield. Later he was reburied in a mass grave in the city of Krichev.
In Belarus, they remember the feat of the Oryol artilleryman. In Krichev, a street was named after him, and a monument was erected. After the war, archive workers Soviet army did a great job to restore the chronicle of events. Sirotinin's feat was recognized in 1960, but the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was not awarded due to a bureaucratic inconsistency - the Sirotinin family did not have photographs of their son. In 1961, an obelisk with the name of Sirotinin was erected on the site of the feat, and a real weapon was placed. On the 20th anniversary of the Victory, Sergeant Sirotinin was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class.
IN hometown Orla also did not forget about the feat of Sirotinin. A memorial plaque dedicated to Nikolai Sirotinin was installed at the Tekmash plant. In 2015, school number 7 in the city of Orel was named after Sergeant Sirotinin.