Pavlov's house became one of the historical sites of the Battle of Stalingrad, which still causes controversy among modern historians.

During fierce fighting, the house withstood a considerable number of counterattacks from the Germans. For 58 days, a group of Soviet soldiers bravely held the defense, destroying more than a thousand enemy soldiers during this period. In the post-war years, historians carefully tried to restore all the details, and the composition of the commanders who carried out the operation led to the first disagreements.

Who held the line

According to official version led the operation Ya.F. Pavlov, in principle, is associated with this fact and the name of the house, which he subsequently received. But there is another version, according to which Pavlov directly led the assault, and I.F. Afanasyev was then responsible for the defense. And this fact is confirmed by military reports, which became the source for reconstructing all the events of that period. According to his soldiers, Ivan Afanasyevich was a rather modest person, perhaps this pushed him into the background a little. After the war, Pavlov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Unlike him, Afanasiev was not awarded such an award.

Strategic importance of the house

An interesting fact for historians was that the Germans designated this house on the map as a fortress. And indeed the strategic importance of the house was very important - from here there was a wide view of the territory from where the Germans could break through to the Volga. Despite daily attacks from the enemy, our soldiers defended their positions, reliably closing the approaches from enemies. The Germans who took part in the assault could not understand how the people in Pavlov’s house could withstand their attacks without food or ammunition reinforcements. Subsequently, it turned out that all provisions and weapons were delivered through a special trench dug underground.

Is Tolik Kuryshov a fictional character or a hero?

Also little known fact, which was discovered during the research, was the heroism of an 11-year-old boy who fought along with the Pavlovians. Tolik Kuryshov helped the soldiers in every possible way, who, in turn, tried to protect him from danger. Despite the commander's ban, Tolik still managed to accomplish a real feat. Having penetrated one of the neighboring houses, he was able to obtain important documents for the army - the capture plan. After the war, Kuryshov did not advertise his feat in any way. We learned about this event from surviving documents. After a series of investigations, Anatoly Kuryshov was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Where were the civilians?

Whether there was an evacuation or not - this issue also caused a lot of controversy. According to one version, there were civilians in the basement of the Pavlovsk house for all 58 days. Although there is theory that people were evacuated through dug trenches. Yet modern historians adhere to the official version. Many documents indicate that people were indeed in the basement all this time. Thanks to the heroism of our soldiers, no civilians were harmed during these 58 days.

Today Pavlov's house has been completely restored and immortalized with a memorial wall. Based on the events related to the heroic defense of the legendary house, books have been written and even a film has been made, which has won many world awards.

If Stalingrad is one of the most significant symbols of the Great Patriotic War, then “Pavlov’s House” - Foundation stone this symbol. It is known that for 58 days the international garrison held the building in the city center, repelling numerous attacks by the Germans. According to Marshal Chuikov, Pavlov’s group destroyed more Germans than they lost during the capture of Paris, and General Rodimtsev wrote that this ordinary Stalingrad four-story building was listed on Paulus’s personal map as a fortress. But, like most wartime legends created by GlavPUR employees, the official history of the defense of Pavlov’s House has little in common with reality. In addition, much more significant episodes of the Battle of Stalingrad remained in the shadow of the legend, and the name of one person remained in history, leaving the names of others in oblivion. Let's try to correct this injustice.

Birth of a legend

The real events that took place in the fall of 1942 on January 9 Square and a narrow strip along the Volga bank in the city center gradually faded from memory. For many years, only individual episodes seemed to be encrypted in the most famous Stalingrad photographs of correspondent Georgy Zelma. These pictures in mandatory are present in every book, article or publication about the epoch-making battle, but almost no one knows what exactly is depicted on them. However, the participants themselves, the soldiers and commanders of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, attached much more importance to these events than to the notorious legend. They are worth talking about.

The location of the objects mentioned in the study, on a German aerial photograph taken in March 1943: 1 – State Bank; 2 – ruins of a brewery; 3 – complex of NKVD buildings; 4 – school No. 6; 5 – Voentorg; 6 – “Zabolotny’s House”; 7 – “Pavlov’s House”; 8 – mill; 9 – “Milk House”; 10 – “House of Railway Workers”; 11 – “L-shaped house”; 12 – school No. 38; 13 – oil tanks (German stronghold); 14 – oil refinery plant; 15 – factory warehouse. Click on the photo to see a larger version

After a series of severe attacks by two German divisions, which reached their peak on September 22, the 13th Guards Division found itself in a very difficult situation. Of its three regiments, one was completely destroyed, and in the other, only one of the three battalions remained. The situation was so critical that on the night of September 22-23, Divisional Commander Major General A.I. Rodimtsev, along with his headquarters, was forced to evacuate from the adit opposite the NKVD building complex to the area of ​​the Banny ravine. But half-encircled and pressed against the Volga, the division survived, holding several blocks in the city center.

Soon the long-awaited reinforcements arrived: the 685th Regiment of the 193rd Infantry Division was transferred to Rodimtsev’s disposal, and the bloodless 34th Guards Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel D.I. Panikhin, in which 48 “active bayonets” remained on the evening of September 22, was replenished by sending a marching company of about 1,300 people.

For the next two days, relative calm established itself in the division’s sector; only to the south was frequent cannonade heard: there, in the area of ​​the City Garden and the mouth of the Tsarina, German units were finishing off the remnants of the left flank of the 62nd Army. To the north, behind the Dolgiy and Krutoy ravines, oil tanks were smoking, a fierce firefight could be heard - the sailors from the 284th SD were recapturing the burning Oil Syndicate and Hardware Plant from the Germans.

Fragment of the map “Plan of the city of Stalingrad and its environs” 1941–1942. The headquarters of Rodimtsev’s division were very lucky that they had one of the copies of the map on hand, from which they made a tracing paper - the staff workers of many units of the 62nd Army literally drew the layout diagrams “on their knees.” But this plan was largely conditional: for example, it did not show strong multi-story buildings playing decisive role in street fights.

On September 23 and 24, the opponents probed the front line - during short skirmishes and skirmishes, the front line gradually emerged. The left flank of Rodimtsev’s division abutted the Volga, where the high-rise buildings of the State Bank and the House of Specialists, captured by the Germans, stood on a high cliff. A hundred meters from the State Bank there were the ruins of a brewery, where soldiers of the 39th Guards Regiment occupied positions.

In the center of the front of the 13th Guards Rifle Division there was a huge complex of departmental and residential buildings of the NKVD, which occupied an entire block. The labyrinths of ruins, strong walls and huge basements of the prison were perfectly suited for urban battles, and the NKVD buildings became the core of the defense of Rodimtsev’s division. Opposite the complex, separated by the wide Republican Street and scorched wooden blocks, stood two German strongholds - a four-story school No. 6 and a five-story military trade building. By that time, the buildings had changed hands several times, but on September 22 they were recaptured by the Germans.

A view from the German side. By September 17, School No. 6 would have already burned out during the fighting. Photo from the collection of Dirk Jeschke courtesy of Anton Joly

Just north of the NKVD buildings was mill No. 4, a strong four-story building with secure basements. Here the positions of the last of the battalions of the 42nd Guards Regiment were equipped - the 3rd battalion of Captain A.E. Zhukova. Behind the warehouse buildings and the wide neutral strip of Penza Street, a huge wasteland of January 9 Square began, where two as yet nameless and unremarkable buildings could be seen.

The right flank of Rodimtsev's division was held by soldiers of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment. The line of defense was extremely unfortunate - it ran along the edge of a high cliff. Very nearby stood huge five- and six-story buildings occupied by enemy German infantry - the “Railway Workers' House” and the “L-Shaped House.” The high-rises dominated the surrounding area, and German spotters had a good view of the positions of the Soviet troops, the shore and the section of the river nearby. In addition, in the section of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment, two deep ravines led to the Volga - Dolgiy and Krutoy, literally cutting off the 13th Guards Rifle Division from the 284th Rifle Division of Colonel N.F. Batyuk, the neighbor on the right, and the rest of the 62nd Army. Very soon these circumstances will play their fatal role.

Positions of the units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division on September 25. The diagram also shows the 685th Infantry Regiment attached to Rodimtsev. On the right side of the map, near the ravines, the actions of units of the 284th SD are visible. On the left side, surrounded in the area of ​​the department store, the 1st battalion of the 42nd Guards Regiment, Senior Lieutenant F.G. Fedoseeva

A diagram of the location of units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division on September 25, 1942, transferred to an aerial photo. On the left flank were the lines of the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment of Major S.S. Dolgov, in the center - 42nd Guards Regiment Colonel I.P. Elina, on the right flank the soldiers of the 34th Guards Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel D.I., held the defense. Panikhina

On the morning of September 25, units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, following orders from army headquarters, “in small groups, using grenades, petrol bombs and mortars of all calibers” tried to improve their position. The third battalion of the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment managed to get out and gain a foothold on the line of Republican Street, and the soldiers of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment managed to clear several wooden houses in the area of ​​the 2nd Embankment. The 685th joint venture attached to the division advanced in the direction of January 9 Square and school No. 6, but, suffering losses from strong machine gun and artillery fire on the western side of the square, was not successful.

Guardsmen of the 3rd battalion of the 42nd Guards Regiment from the group of junior lieutenant N.E. Zabolotny, digging a trench across Solnechnaya Street, managed to occupy the ruins of a four-story building, which will later be designated as “Zabolotny’s House.” There were no losses: there were no Germans in the ruins. The next night, junior sergeant Ya.F. Pavlov received an order from the commander of the 7th company, Senior Lieutenant I.I. Naumov to scout out a four-story building on January 9 Square, which stood next to the ruins of the “Zabolotny house”. Pavlov had already established himself as an excellent fighter - a week earlier, he, together with Zabolotny and a group of fighters, cleared the military trade house from the Germans, for which he later received the medal “For Courage”. The day before, Pavlov returned alive from an unsuccessful search, the task of which was to break through to the encircled 1st battalion.

A 25-year-old junior sergeant selected three soldiers from his squad, - V.S. Glushchenko, A.P. Alexandrova, N.Ya. Chernogolova, - after waiting for darkness, he began to complete the task. From the NP, the actions of the small group were monitored by battalion commander Zhukov, who had received an order from the regiment commander a little earlier to seize the house on the square. The group was supported by machine gun and mortar fire from the entire regiment, then neighbors to the right and left joined. In the confusion of the battle, running from crater to crater, four fighters covered the distance from the mill warehouses to the four-story building and disappeared into the entrance opening.

On the left is “Zabolotny’s House”, on the right is “Pavlov’s House”. The video was shot by cinematographer V.I. Orlyankin with a real risk of catching a bullet - German positions in a hundred meters of open space on Solnechnaya Street

What happened next is known only from the words of Yakov Pavlov himself. While combing the next entrance, four Red Army soldiers noticed Germans in one of the apartments. At that moment, Pavlov made a fateful decision - not only to scout out the house, but also to try to seize it on his own. Surprise, F-1 grenades and a burst from the PPSh decided the outcome of the fleeting battle - the house was captured.

In Zhukov’s post-war memoirs, everything looks a little different. In correspondence with fellow soldiers, the battalion commander claimed that Pavlov captured “his” house without a fight - there were simply no Germans in the building, as in the neighboring “Zabolotny House”. One way or another, it was Zhukov who, having designated a new landmark for the artillerymen as “Pavlov’s House,” laid the first stone in the foundation of the legend. A couple of days later, the regiment’s agitator, senior political instructor L.P. Root will write a short note to the political department of the 62nd Army about a rather ordinary episode of those days, and history will begin to wait in the wings.

Little island of tranquility

For two days, Pavlov and three soldiers held the building while battalion commander Zhukov and company commander Naumov gathered fighters from the thinned battalion for a new strong point. The garrison consisted of: a crew of the Maxim machine gun under the command of Lieutenant I.F. Afanasyev, a squad of three anti-tank rifles of sergeant Andrei Sobgaida and two company mortar crews under the command of junior lieutenant Alexei Chernushenko. Together with machine gunners, the garrison numbered about 30 soldiers. As the senior in rank, Lieutenant Afanasyev became commander.

On the left is Guard Junior Sergeant Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov, on the right is Guard Lieutenant Ivan Filippovich Afanasyev

In addition to the fighters, civilians huddled in the basement of the house - old people, women and children. In total, there were more than 50 people in the building, so general everyday rules and the position of commandant were required. Junior Sergeant Pavlov rightfully became it. When it became clear that German positions were visible from the upper floors of the house for several kilometers, a communication line was installed into the building, and spotters settled in the attic. The strong point received the call sign “Mayak” and became one of the main outposts in the defense system of the 13th Guards Rifle Division.

On September 26, the first assault on Stalingrad ended, during which the Germans destroyed the last pockets of resistance on the left flank of the 62nd Army. The German command rightly believed that the tasks of the infantry divisions in the city center were completely completed: the bank of the Volga had been reached, the main Russian crossing had ceased its work. On September 27, the second assault began; main events and fighting moved to workers' villages north of Mamayev Kurgan. South of the mound, in the central and southern regions of the city captured by the Germans, the command of the 6th Army left the 71st and 295th infantry divisions, which were bled dry in the September battles and were only suitable for defense. The small bridgehead of the 13th Guards Rifle Division ended up being away from the main events, literally on the outskirts of the epoch-making battle for Stalingrad.

At the end of September, Rodimtsev’s division was assigned the task together with those attached to the 685th joint venture and two mortar companies “hold the occupied area and, through the actions of small assault and blocking groups, destroy the enemy in the buildings he has captured.” It must be said that Army Commander Lieutenant General V.I. Chuikov by order prohibited the conduct of offensive actions by entire units - a company or battalion - which resulted in large losses. The 62nd Army began to learn urban combat.

Two photographs taken by photojournalist S. Loskutov in the fall of 1942 in the trenches east of the ruins of the NKVD building complex. Judging by the direction of the barrel, the mortar crew is shelling the military trade area

Like pincers, Rodimtsev’s division was squeezed on both sides by German strongholds located in strong and tall buildings. On the left flank there were four- and five-story “Houses of Specialists” and the State Bank building. The Red Army soldiers already tried to recapture the latter from the Germans on September 19 - the sappers blew up the wall, and the assault group managed to occupy part of the building - however, during the offensive on September 22, the German infantry recaptured it again. In a few days, the Germans managed to thoroughly fortify themselves: in the ruins they were equipped not only machine gun points, but also positions of small-caliber guns, and barbed wire was strung along the walls.

On the night of September 29, scouts from the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment managed to secretly approach the building and threw COP bottles at the windows. Several rooms were engulfed in fire, an easel machine gun and a 37-mm cannon were destroyed, and the advance group began a firefight. But the bulk of the soldiers were recently arrived recruits from Central Asia, and they did not go on the attack. The squad leaders literally pulled reluctant soldiers out of the trenches to help the dying assault group, but it was too late. It was not possible to capture the State Bank; many old soldiers and honored intelligence officers died. The problem of the quality of replenishment during this period was very acute: at the end of September, in the 39th Guards Regiment, six “Uzbeks” were shot for “self-inflicted gunfire” - this is how all immigrants from Central Asia were called in the 62nd Army.

Unique video: the State Bank building after the August bombing. In September there were fierce battles for it, but after an unsuccessful assault on the night of September 29, no more attempts were made to recapture the State Bank. The strong point remained with the Germans

On the right flank, where the positions of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment were located, the situation was even worse. Not far from the steep cliff stood two huge buildings captured by the Germans - the so-called “Railway Workers' House” and the “L-Shaped House”. The first one did not have time to be completed before the war; only the foundation and the northern wing were completed. The “L-shaped house” was a five-six-story “Stalin” building, from the upper floors of which German spotters could view almost the entire bridgehead of the 13th Guards Rifle Division. Both huge structures were heavily fortified and looked more like impregnable fortresses. In this area, the positions of the 295th Wehrmacht Infantry Division came closest to a steep cliff, under which only a narrow strip of shore connected Rodimtsev’s division with the rest of the 62nd Army. The fate of the division hung in the balance, and the capture of these two German fortified points for the next three months became a real fixed idea of ​​the headquarters of the 13th Guards Rifle Division and its commander.

Detachment as the last argument

September was coming to an end. Exhausted opponents burrowed deeper into the ground. Every night the clang of shovels and the sound of pickaxes could be heard, and combat reports were full of numbers of dug cubes of earth and linear meters of trenches. Across the streets and open places barricades and communication passages were built, sappers mined dangerous areas. Window openings were blocked with bricks, and embrasures were made in the walls. Reserve positions were dug out further from the walls, as many soldiers died under the rubble. After the fire at the State Bank, the Germans began to cover the windows of the upper floors with bed nets - the likelihood of being burned at night by a flying bottle of COP or a thermite ball from an ampoule gun was very high.

The calm did not last long. October 1 almost became the last day for the defenders of the small bridgehead. The day before, the 295th Wehrmacht Infantry Division received reinforcements and the task of finally reaching the Volga in its sector. An engineer battalion from the commander's group arrived to support the offensive. engineering troops 6th Army of Oberst Max von Stiotta ( Max Edler von Stiotta). The strike was planned at the most vulnerable point in the defense of Rodimtsev’s division - the area of ​​​​the Dolgiy and Krutoy ravines, where there was a junction with the 284th SD. In addition, the Germans decided to abandon their favorite tactics of a massive artillery attack and air strike followed by clearing out neighborhoods. A surprise night attack was supposed to bring success.

At 00:30 Berlin time, units of the 295th Infantry Division and attached units secretly accumulated to the west of the tram bridge and through a drainage pipe in the embankment began to seep along the slopes of the Krutoy ravine to the shore of the Volga. Having crushed the military guard, the German infantry came close to the positions of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment. Shooting the Red Army soldiers taken by surprise, the Germans captured one trench after another, quickly moving forward. Explosions of grenades and concentrated charges were heard: sappers blew up dugouts with blocked Soviet soldiers. From the bunker on the slope, a “Maxim” rattled rhythmically; in response, a stream of flamethrower splashed towards the embrasure. There was hand-to-hand combat at the headquarters dugouts; Russians and Germans, their faces twisted with rage, were killing each other. Intensifying the intensity of the madness, a jazz melody was suddenly heard in the darkness, and then calls to surrender were heard from the banks of the Volga in broken German.

By five o'clock in the morning, a critical situation had developed at the line of Rodimtsev's division. The strike groups of the 295th Infantry Division, having crushed the defenses of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment, reached the Volga near the mouth of the Krutoy ravine. The commander and commissar of the 2nd battalion were killed in the battle. Continuing the offensive, the German infantry began to advance in two directions: to the north, where the headquarters of the 13th Guards Rifle Division was located, and to the south - to the mortar positions and rear of the surrounded 39th and 42nd Guards Rifle Regiments. Soon Rodimtsev lost contact with the rest of the division - the Germans cut the cable running along the coast.

One of the mortar companies was commanded by Senior Lieutenant G.E. Brick. The Germans came close to the company's positions - the opponents were separated only by railway tracks lined with wagons. In violation of all instructions, the company commander ordered the mortar barrels to be placed almost vertically. Having shot off the last mines, the crews under the command of Grigory Brik launched a bayonet attack on the taken aback Germans.

On the left in the photo is Grigory Evdokimovich Brik (post-war photo). He was lucky to survive the night battle on October 1, for which he was awarded the second Order of the Red Star. Brik went through the entire war, and in 1945 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. On the right is the commander of the 2nd battalion of the 34th Guards Regiment, Senior Lieutenant Pyotr Arsentievich Loktionov. On the morning of October 1, his mutilated body was found near the broken headquarters dugouts. The senior lieutenant was 23 years old.

A diagram of the night battle of the 13th Guards Rifle Division transferred to an aerial photograph from the General Staff book “Fighting in Stalingrad” of 1944. In addition to the main attack on the Krutoy ravine, units of the 295th Infantry Division attacked the positions of the 3rd battalion of the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment on Respublikanskaya Street; 1st battalion of the 34th Guards Regiment. The destroyed building of the oil refinery plant is highlighted at the bottom right

Rodimtsev’s last reserve were 30 soldiers of the barrage battalion under the command of platoon commander Lieutenant A.T. Stroganov. He received the task from the mouth of the Dolgiy ravine to knock out the Germans from the positions of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment. Having stopped the retreating and demoralized soldiers of the 3rd battalion, he led a counterattack on the Germans breaking through to the division headquarters. The firefight began under the cliff of a steep bank, where there were warehouses and piers of an oil refinery plant and a coastal railway. The Germans could not get further. Lieutenant Alexander Stroganov was nominated for the Order of Lenin, but the command of the 62nd Army reduced the award to the Medal “For Courage”.

The bank of the Volga in the area of ​​warehouses and the building of an oil refinery plant. The destroyed wall of the factory is visible at the top of the cliff. Filming by cameraman Orlyankin

By 06:00, having brought up the collected reserves, units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division launched a counterattack. We finally managed to contact the artillerymen on the other side of the Volga - the area of ​​​​the Krutoy ravine, along which the Germans were bringing up reinforcements, was shrouded in dust from the explosions of large-caliber shells. The units of the 295th Infantry Division that broke through to the Volga, having fallen into a trap on the bank, faltered and began to retreat along the ravine back to the tram bridge. While pursuing the enemy, the fighters were also able to recapture several groups of Red Army soldiers who had previously been captured. Soon the situation at the line of Rodimtsev’s division was restored. In the combat log of the 6th Army, the unsuccessful attack of the 295th Infantry Division is marked with the following meager lines:

“The offensive of the 295th Infantry Division, with the support of Stiotta’s group, initially had serious success, but was then stopped under heavy fire. As a result of small arms fire from the north and from unsuppressed pockets of resistance in the rear, it was necessary to retreat to their original positions. The front line of defense is under constant artillery fire.”

Later, according to reports from the field, interesting identifying marks were found on the Germans killed on the shore - paratroopers, veterans of the landing on Crete, took part in the night attack. It was also reported that some of the German soldiers were dressed in Red Army uniforms.

For two days the 13th Guards Rifle Division put itself in order, the soldiers counted and buried their dead comrades. The 34th Guards Rifle Regiment, which came under the pressure of the German offensive for the second time, suffered the heaviest damage. The regiment's reports on irretrievable losses noted: on October 1, 77 Red Army soldiers went missing and 130 died, on October 2 – another 18 and 83 people, respectively. By an evil irony of fate, it was on October 1 that the central newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda published the article “Heroes of Stalingrad” with a letter-oath from Rodimtsev’s guardsmen, which turned out to be literally sealed in blood.

After the unsuccessful offensive on the night of October 1, the Germans no longer undertook such large-scale military operations in the sector of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, limiting themselves to local attacks. The fight for a small section of the city center took on a positional character: the opponents exchanged artillery and mortar fire, and the number of people killed from sniper fire increased sharply.

At night, the small bridgehead came to life and resembled an anthill: soldiers hastily unloaded boats with ammunition, commanders sent small reinforcement groups to positions. After the landing, the division's rear officers were able to establish supplies, and Rodimtsev had his own small fleet - about 30 rowing boats and boats. It was the inability to independently provide for themselves in the conditions of a city cut off by a river that destroyed the 92nd Special Brigade in September.

During the day, the streets and ruins of the city died out. Any movement - be it a fighter running from door to door, or a civilian in search of food - caused fire. There were cases when German soldiers to cross the area under fire, they changed into women's clothing. All enemy concentration areas, field kitchens and water sources became the objects of close attention of sharp shooters on both sides. Huge ruined buildings, open spaces and a stable front line made the ruined city center a suitable arena for sniper duels.

Among the snipers of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, the commander of the 39th Guards Rifle Division, Sergeant A.I., immediately stood out with accurate fire. Chekhov. Having graduated with honors from the Central School of Sniper Instructors, Chekhov was not only good shooter, but also knew how to teach his comrades in his specialty, many of whom later surpassed him. When Vasily Grossman visited Rodimtsev’s division, he had a long conversation with a modest and thoughtful guy, who at the age of 19 had become an excellent killing machine. The writer was so impressed by his sincere interest in life, thoughtful approach to his work and hatred of the invaders that Grossman dedicated one of his first essays about the Battle of Stalingrad to Anatoly Chekhov.

Sniper Anatoly Chekhov at work, filmed by cameraman Orlyankin. The location and circumstances of the shooting have not yet been determined

It so happened that the sergeant lost his last sniper duel. He and the German fired simultaneously; both missed, but the enemy bullet still reached the target with a ricochet. Chekhov, with a blind chest wound, was literally forcibly transported to a hospital on the left bank, but a few days later the sergeant reappeared at the regiment’s positions and chalked up three more Germans. When the rising temperature knocked the guy down in the evening, it turned out that Chekhov had escaped from the hospital and had not yet undergone surgery.

Exemplary defense

On October 11, at the site of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment, a group of 35 Red Army soldiers attempted to storm an unfinished four-story building. Thus, an epic began in the division with two buildings, the names of which from that moment began to appear more often than others in combat reports and reports - “Railway Workers’ House” and “L-Shaped House”.

For two months, units of the 34th and 42nd Guards Regiments tried to drive the Germans out of these fortified points. In October, two attempts to capture the "Railway Workers' House" ended in failure. In the first case, with the support of artillery and mortar fire, the assault squad was able to reach the building and even penetrate inside, starting a grenade battle. But the approach of the main part of the fighters was blocked by unsuppressed German firing points from the flanks, from the neighboring “L-shaped house” and other buildings. The assault group had to retreat; during the assault, the company commander was killed and the battalion commander was wounded.

Collage of aerial photos from October 2, 1942 and August video footage of a panorama of the Volga bank

On October 24, during the second attack, the “House of Railway Workers” was first fired upon by 152-mm howitzers from the left bank of the Volga. After artillery preparation, 18 soldiers of the assault group ran towards the huge ruins, but were met by flanking machine gun fire, and then the approaches to the house were fired at by mortars from the depths of the German defense. Suffering losses, the group retreated this time too.

The third assault followed on November 1. At 16:00, after heavy shelling from high-power guns, units of the 34th and 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment in small groups again tried to capture the “House of Railway Workers”, but on the approach to the building they were met with dense rifle and machine gun fire and returned to their original positions. At 20:00 the attack came again. Having reached the wall, the Soviet soldiers stumbled upon a wire fence and came under cross-machine gun fire. From the ruins, the Germans threw swords, bunches of grenades and bottles of flammable mixture at the guards pinned to the ground. Without success, the surviving fighters of the assault group were only able to crawl to their trenches at night.

Despite the fact that the main German positions in the built northern wing of the “House of Railwaymen” were not captured, the Red Army soldiers managed to occupy the foundation of the southern wing, predetermining the tactical plan for the next assault.

One of a series of famous Stalingrad photographs by G. Zelma. The photo was taken in a trench coming out of the unfinished southern wing of the “Railway Workers’ House”; behind the soldier the nearby “Pavlov’s House” is visible. In the first photo from the series, the “killed” fighter in the lower right corner is still “alive.” According to the author of the article, this series of photos of Zelma is a kind of reconstruction of the fighting of the 13th Guards Rifle Division and was filmed after the end of the fighting, in the spring of 1943. Linking the location to the photo of D. Zimin and A. Skvorin

During October, when the 13th Guards Rifle Division tried to improve its position in the bridgehead, north of Mamayev Kurgan, Army Commander Chuikov suffered defeat after defeat. During the second and third assaults on the city, the Germans captured the workers’ villages “Red October” and “Barricades”, the village named after. Rykov, Sculpture Park, Mountain Village and Stalingrad Tractor Plant. By the end of October, the enemy had almost completely occupied the Barrikady and Red October factories. German large-caliber artillery swept away the wooden neighborhoods of workers' settlements, multi-story buildings and huge workshops, the aviation of the 4th Luftwaffe Air Fleet with heavy bombs mixed the positions of Soviet troops with the ground - in the October battles, suffering huge losses, entire divisions were burned in a few days: the 138th, 193rd and 308th SD, 37th GSD...

All this time, the site of Rodimtsev’s division was the quietest place on the line of defense of the 62nd Army, and soon writers and journalists flocked there. Stalingrad was practically lost - and, therefore, evidence to the contrary was required, examples of a long and successful defense. Newspapers visited positions, talked with commanders and political workers, among whom was the agitator of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment Leonid Koren. The division's strongholds in the ruins of the brewery and in the basements of the NKVD prison were poorly suited for an article about the heroic defenders of Stalingrad; the Germans were firmly seated in the "House of Railway Workers" and the "L-Shaped House". The story told by the political instructor about the seizure of a four-story building on January 9 Square at the end of September was a real find for the GlavPUR of the Red Army.

The first publication appeared on October 31, 1942 - an article by junior political instructor Yu.P. was published in the newspaper of the 62nd Army “Stalin's Banner”. Chepurin "Pavlov's House". The article took up an entire page and was an excellent example of army propaganda. It colorfully described the battle for the house, noted the initiative of the junior and the role of the senior command staff, especially highlighted the international garrison, and even listed its fighters - “Russian people Pavlov, Aleksandrov, Afanasyev, Ukrainians Sobgaida, Glushchenko, Georgians Mosiyashvili, Stepanoshvili, Uzbek Turgunov, Kazakh Murzaev, Abkhazian Sukba, Tajik Turdyev, Tatar Romazanov and dozens of their fighting friends.” The author immediately brought to the fore the “houseowner” junior sergeant Pavlov, and the garrison commander, Lieutenant Afanasyev, was left out of work.

At the beginning of November, capital journalists D.F. were transferred to the 13th Guards Rifle Division. Akulshin and V.N. Kuprin, who stayed in the dugout of the 42nd GSP agitator Leonid Koren. One day Root came to his place and found his guests leafing through his diary notes. The combat political instructor wanted to hit the capital's scribblers on the neck, but they not only calmed him down, but also persuaded him to publish in a central newspaper. Already on November 19, Pravda published a series of essays by Koren, “Stalingrad Days,” the last of which was called “Pavlov’s House.” The series quickly became popular; Yuri Levitan read it on the radio. The example of an ordinary sergeant was truly inspiring for ordinary soldiers, and the whole country recognized Yakov Pavlov.

What is significant is that in the first stories about the capture of house No. 61 on Penzenskaya Street it was clearly stated that there were no Germans there. However, all the other components of the future legend were already in place, and this point was subsequently corrected.

While GlavPUR workers were working on the ideological front, in the positions of Rodimtsev’s division events were taking their course. At the end of October - beginning of November, the exhausted opponents practically did not conduct active hostilities in the city center. The risk of being killed at any moment was still high - judging by the testimony of doctors of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, most soldiers died from shrapnel wounds. The operating room was located in a sewer pipe on the slope of the steep bank of the Volga, and the division headquarters was located nearby, near the mouth of the Dolgiy ravine. The seriously wounded were transported at night to the other side, where, under the leadership of Colonel I.I. Okhlobystin worked as a divisional medical battalion.

Nurses of the 13th Guards Rifle Division. The photographs were taken near the ruins of a four-story building that stood east of the mill - now a panorama museum in this place. Leading the way is Maria Ulyanova (Ladychenkova), a staff nurse at the Pavlov’s House garrison.

The holiday of November 7 has arrived. On this day, the 13th Guards Rifle Division presented guards badges and awarded distinguished fighters, the divisional ensemble performed, meetings were held in dugouts and basements of strongholds, baths were organized for the soldiers on the shore and winter uniforms were issued to them. Despite daily artillery and mortar attacks, life continued on the bridgehead.

Divisional ensemble of the 13th Guards Rifle Division. The photo was taken near the mouth of the Dolgiy ravine. At the top you can see the destroyed warehouse of the oil refinery plant

The wasted work of sappers

While the guards were preparing for the celebration of November 7, in the defense sector of the 42nd Guards Regiment, the engineer platoon of Lieutenant I.I. Chumakov worked tirelessly. From the southern part of the foundation of the “Railway Workers' House” captured from the Germans, a mine gallery was dug at a depth of five meters towards the northern wing held by the Germans. The work was carried out in complete darkness with a lack of air; Due to the lack of special tools, sappers dug with small infantry shovels. Three tons of tola were then placed into the chamber at the end of the 42-meter tunnel.

On November 10, at two o’clock in the morning, there was a deafening explosion - the “House of Railway Workers” was blown up into the air. The northern wing was half swept away by the blast wave. Heavy pieces of foundation and frozen earth fell onto the positions of the opposing sides for a whole minute, and right in the middle of the unfinished building a huge crater with a diameter of more than 30 meters gaped.

In the photo, Ivan Iosifovich Chumakov, a 19-year-old commander of a sapper platoon in Stalingrad. His fighters undermined the State Bank and the House of Railwaymen; Grossman wrote with delight about Lieutenant Chumakov in Krasnaya Zvezda. In the aerial photo dated March 29, 1943, the explosion crater is clearly visible; on the right is a diagram of an underground mine attack from the book “Fighting in Stalingrad,” published in 1944

A minute and a half after the explosion, assault groups rushed to attack from covered trenches 130-150 meters from the object. According to the plan, three groups with a total of about 40 people from three directions were supposed to break into the building, but in the darkness and confusion of the battle it was not possible to act coherently. Some of the fighters stumbled upon the remains of a wire fence and were unable to reach the walls. Another group tried to enter the basement through a smoking crater, but the surviving wall of the boiler room prevented them. Due to the commander’s indecisiveness, this group did not go on the attack, remaining in cover. Time was inexorably running out: the Germans were already bringing up reinforcements through the trenches to help the stunned and shell-shocked garrison. A series of rockets illuminated the ruins of the building and the battlefield in front of it, German machine guns came to life, pinning the hesitant Red Army soldiers to the ground. The attempt to seize the “House of Railway Workers” was unsuccessful this time too.

The answer was not long in coming - on November 11, in the area of ​​the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment southeast of the State Bank, German infantry tried to shoot down a Soviet military outpost, but the attack was repulsed by rifle and machine-gun fire. The artillery shelling of the night crossing intensified, and three boats with food were sunk. As a result of a German air raid, warehouses with ammunition and uniforms located on the shore burned down. The division experienced major supply shortages.

On November 11, junior sergeant of the machine gun battalion A.I. died in battle. Starodubtsev. Alexey Ivanovich was a well-known machine gunner in the division, an old, honored fighter. During the battle, a shell exploded near his position and the machine gunner’s head was crushed by a fragment of a wall. The second number was wounded. In a unique case, Starodubtsev’s funeral was filmed by cameraman Orlyankin, then these shots ended up in the 1943 film “Stalingrad”. Filming location – eastern part of the NKVD building complex

In the harsh conditions of the onset of frost and meager rations in the destroyed city, the Red Army soldiers arranged their modest life. Gunsmiths worked on the shore, craftsmen repaired watches, made potbelly stoves, lamps and other household items. The Red Army soldiers stole from the destroyed apartments into frozen basements, dugouts and dugouts everything that could create at least the appearance of comfort: beds and armchairs, carpets and paintings. Valuable finds were considered musical instruments, gramophones and records, books, Board games- everything that helped brighten up leisure time.

This was the case in Pavlov's House. When not on duty, on duty or engineering work For a time, the garrison gathered in the basement of the building. After a couple of months of positional defense, the fighters got used to each other and formed a well-coordinated combat mechanism. This was greatly facilitated by intelligent junior commanders and competent political workers; as a result, recently drafted, often uneducated and poorly versed in Russian, recruits became good and reliable fighters. By the will of fate, the Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, Kazakhs, Georgians, Abkhazians, Uzbeks, Kalmyks gathered on a piece of Stalingrad land were united as never before in the face of a common enemy and blood-tied by the death of their comrades.

Commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, Major General Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev and his soldiers

The first half of November passed, wet snow began to fall, slush began to fall along the Volga - small pieces of the first autumn ice. Food supply became very tight; there was a shortage of ammunition and medicine. The wounded and sick could not be evacuated - the boats could not make their way to the shore. The fact of desertion was recorded in the division - two Red Army soldiers ran over to the Germans from the positions of the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment.

From defense to offense

On the morning of November 19, an unusual activity was noticeable near the headquarters dugouts: the commanders came out every now and then, stood for a long time and smoked, as if listening to something. The next day, political commissars were already reading out the order of the Military Council to the soldiers Stalingrad Front- Soviet troops launched a long-awaited counteroffensive. Operation Uranus began.

On November 21, in accordance with the order of the 62nd Army, Rodimtsev’s division began active operations. The command of the encircled 6th Wehrmacht Army was forced to form a new front in the west, withdrawing units from positions in the city. It was necessary to identify the composition of the German units opposing the 13th Guards Rifle Division, and in the morning a reconnaissance group consisting of 16 soldiers and four flamethrowers raided the enemy’s German dugout with the aim of capturing a prisoner. Alas, the scouts were discovered, the Germans called mortar fire on themselves, and, having suffered losses, the reconnaissance group returned.

On November 22, in the areas of the upcoming offensive, division units conducted reconnaissance in force - seven reconnaissance groups of 25 soldiers, under the cover of mortars and machine guns, simulated an attack, revealing the fire system of the 295th Wehrmacht Infantry Division. Observation established that the fire system remained the same; with the start of the attack, the enemy pulled groups of 10-15 people to the front edge, but the artillery fire noticeably weakened.

The number of fighters in the 13th Guards Rifle Division, as in other formations of the 62nd Army, was very far from the standard number

If the search to capture the “language” had been successful, then the headquarters of the 13th Guards Rifle Division would have learned that the 517th Regiment Regiment of the 295th Infantry Division and headquarters units had been removed from their positions by the command of the 6th Army. The battle formations were consolidated with units of the 71st Infantry Division stationed on the left flank.

Despite a significant shortage of personnel, the 13th Guards Rifle Division, like the rest of the 62nd Army formations, received orders to go on the offensive “with the task of destroying the enemy and reaching the western outskirts of Stalingrad.” Rodimtsev planned to attack the positions of the 295th Infantry Division from the January 9 Square with the reinforced 42nd Guards Regiment, break through the German defenses and reach the railway line. The 34th and 39th Guards Rifles were supposed to support the advance of their neighbors in the center with fire. Also in their sector, one company of the 34th Guards Regiment and a company of the training battalion took part in the offensive. It was not intended to storm German strongholds, but to block them with fire and move forward. The divisional artillery was tasked with suppressing the German fire system in the areas of the Krutoy and Dolgiy ravines, the “House of Railway Workers” and the northern part of January 9 Square, providing fire for infantry advance and preventing enemy counterattacks.

On the night of November 24, there was no crowd in “Pavlov’s house” - the infantry occupied not only all the basement compartments, but also the rooms on the first floor. Sappers cleared mine passages on January 9 Square, soldiers in their starting positions prepared weapons, filled pouches and overcoat pockets with ammunition. A little further away, the details of the upcoming attack were discussed by the commanders of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment: the commander of the 3rd battalion, Captain A.E. Zhukov, commander of the 7th company, senior lieutenant I.I. Naumov, commanders and commissars of units, senior lieutenant V.D. Avagimov, Lieutenant I.F. Afanasyev, junior lieutenant A.I. Anikin and others. The garrison of Pavlov's House was disbanded that night, and the soldiers formally returned to their units.

A piercing wind with wet snow was blowing from the Volga. While it was still dark, the guardsmen of the 7th company crawled out onto the square, scattering along the line in craters and ruins. Lieutenant Afanasyev led the fighters out of the “House of Pavlov”, and junior lieutenant Alexey Anikin from the neighboring ruins of the “House of Zabolotny”. Junior Lieutenant Nikolai Zabolotny himself died in reconnaissance in combat the day before. By 07:00 everything was ready.

Bloody "Milk House"

At 10:00 the order was given, and under the cover of artillery, the battalions of the 42nd Guards Regiment went on the attack. However, it was not possible to completely suppress the German firing points, and in the open space of the square, the soldiers of the 3rd battalion immediately came under crossfire from the south, from the military trade buildings and school No. 6, and from the north, from German positions in the burnt wooden blocks of Tobolskaya Street. By 14:00 the 2nd battalion of captain V.G. Andrianov managed to crawl and capture trenches on the streets of Kutaisskaya and Tambovskaya, north of a huge wasteland. The companies of the 34th Guards Regiment and the training battalion advancing near the ravines advanced only 30-50 meters. They were prevented from going further by intense machine-gun fire from the German resistance center - two huge oil tanks fenced with a concrete fence. In the evening, the battalions made two more unsuccessful attempts to move forward.

The results of the first day of the offensive were disappointing: it was not possible to break through the defenses of the 295th Infantry Division immediately. The Germans spent two months equipping and improving their positions, and Rodimtsev’s bloodless division was unable to reach the railway line. But no one canceled the order, so the assigned tasks had to be solved. The main problem was the firing points in the area of ​​the military trade store and school No. 6, so the capture of these strong points in order to cover the left flank of the advancing 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment became the primary goal.

View of German positions from the observation post of the 39th Guards Regiment, located in the ruins of the NKVD building complex

Early in the morning of November 25, the assault group of the 39th Guards Rifle Regiment managed to clear the five-story military trade building. Without wasting time, a group of machine gunners under the command of Senior Lieutenant I.Ya. Undermining ran to the brick two-story buildings on Nizhegorodskaya Street and began throwing grenades at the Germans in school building No. 6. Unable to withstand the onslaught, infantrymen from the 518th PP of the 295th Infantry Division retreated to neighboring ruins and, regrouping there, launched a counterattack. The Germans tried to recapture the school building twice, but both times they were driven back by volley fire.

WITHa series of photographs by G. Zelma, in which, according to the author, a reconstruction of the assault on school No. 6 was filmed

In the morning twilight, the Red Army soldiers of Naumov's company, under fire, were able to reach the tram tracks on the western side of the January 9 Square. Directly behind them, the window openings of a destroyed three-story building covered with peeling plaster, designated for its color in the reports of the 13th Guards Rifle Division as the “Milk House,” were blackened. On the top floor of the surviving left wing, a German machine gunner sat down, pressing the guardsmen into the pockmarked asphalt in long bursts. 30 meters in front of the house stood the burnt-out shell of a semi-truck; in a crater nearby, the machine-gun crew of Senior Sergeant I.V. was hiding. Voronova. After waiting a moment, the soldiers took the Maxim out of cover, and the senior sergeant fired several bursts into the window opening, where flashes of shots flashed. The German machine gun fell silent and, wheezing “hurray” with cold throats, the Red Army soldiers burst into the Milk House.

The Germans who did not have time to leave were finished off in hand-to-hand combat. There was an order from Captain Zhukov to hold the Milk House at all costs, and the entire 7th company moved into its ruins. The soldiers hastily filled up the openings in the western wall with debris and prepared firing points on the upper floors. Grenades were already flying from the German trenches approaching the building, and mortar fire intensified. At this moment, an unpleasant circumstance became clear: the house did not have a basement. Arriving mines and grenades, exploding in a burnt-out box, cut the soldiers with fragments from which there was no salvation. Soon the dead and wounded appeared - the Milk House became a death trap.

The battle for the ruins continued all day. German infantry tried to get inside several times, but were driven back each time. This was followed by mortar fire, grenades flying into the windows, and several defenders were knocked out of action. 23-year-old nurse Maria Ulyanova pulled the wounded under the stairs, where it was possible to somehow hide from the shrapnel. As daylight approached, throwing reinforcements and ammunition through the fire-raided wasteland became deadly. The Germans rolled out a cannon into the destroyed end of the three-story building next to the Milk House and, with a direct fire shot, destroyed the last heavy machine gun in the company, Ilya Voronov. The sergeant received multiple wounds and subsequently lost his leg, Idel Hayt’s crew number was killed on the spot, and Niko Mosiashvili was wounded. The commander of the mortar men, Lieutenant Alexey Chernyshenko, and the commander of the armor-piercing squad, Sergeant Andrey Sobgaida, were killed, Corporal Glushchenko, and machine gunners Bondarenko and Svirin were wounded. At the end of the day, a shrapnel wounded Junior Sergeant Pavlov in the leg and severely concussed Lieutenant Afanasyev.

Senior Lieutenant Ivan Naumov was killed, trying to rush across the square and report the desperate situation of his company. By the end of the day, when the grenades and ammunition ran out, the remaining defenders " Milk house“They literally fought off the advancing Germans with bricks and shouted loudly, creating the appearance of their numbers.

Seeing the catastrophic nature of the situation, battalion commander Zhukov convinced the commander of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment, Colonel I.P. Elina gave the order to retreat, and as darkness fell, a messenger managed to get to the building with an order to leave the ruins that had been won with such difficulty. In the battle for the Milk House, most of the soldiers of the 7th company, from which the garrison of Pavlov’s House was formed, were killed or wounded, but there was no place for these circumstances in the canonical legend of the “heroic defense”.

Perhaps the only photo of the not yet demolished ruins of the “Milk House”, which stood in the northwest corner of the January 9 Square. Now at this place at the address “Lenin Avenue, 31” in Volgograd there is the House of Officers

On November 26, the battle in the square began to subside. And although the tasks set by the command remained the same, Rodimtsev’s bloodless regiments were not able to complete them. Leaving a military outpost at the captured line, the company commanders took the surviving soldiers back to their previous positions. By the end of the day, after repeated attacks, the German infantry finally knocked the Red Army soldiers out of school No. 6: “The enemy attacked the school building occupied by the 39th Guards Regiment several times. In the last attack, up to a company with two tanks, he destroyed the defending group and took possession of it. Moreover, they acted brazenly and walked drunk.” According to reports from the 13th Guards Rifle Division upstairs, the Red Army soldiers managed to hold the five-story military store building nearby.

The scheme of actions of the 13th Guards Rifle Division on November 24-26, transferred to an aerial photo. The three selected objects are school No. 6, military trade and the Milk House. The diagram is inaccurate due to a lack of intelligence: in place of the 517th PP there should be a 518th PP, and instead of the 518th PP there should be a 71st PD

In the November attacks, Rodimtsev's division suffered terrible losses. For example, on November 24-26, 119 soldiers and commanders, not counting the wounded, were killed, died from wounds, or went missing in the units of the 42nd Guards Regiment. In the report of the 62nd Army to the front headquarters following the results of the offensive, only a meager line appeared: “The 13th Guards Rifle Division did not fulfill its task.”

The overall results of the offensive were disappointing: none of the units of the 62nd Army, with the exception of the group of Colonel S.F. Gorokhova, she did not achieve her goals. At the same time, only the actions of the 13th Guards Rifle Division were given a negative assessment. Almost more was written about the famous division and its commander in central newspapers than about the entire 62nd Army, and the ambitious Chuikov began to be irritated by the fame of his subordinate. Soon the army commander's irritation turned into open hostility.

Victory on an army scale

On December 1, Chuikov signed an order to resume the offensive. The divisions and brigades of the 62nd Army were given the same tasks - to defeat the enemy and reach the western outskirts of Stalingrad. The goals of the 13th Guards Rifle Division remained the same - with the right flank to reach the railway, to the line of Sovnarkomovskaya and Zheleznodorozhnaya streets, and to gain a foothold on the achieved line.

Rodimtsev understood perfectly well that first of all it was necessary to solve the problem that had been the division’s headache for two months - to take German strongholds in the ruins of the “Railway Workers’ House” and the “L-shaped House.” Numerous attempts to storm them failed. In an unsuccessful offensive on November 24-26, they tried to block these strong points with artillery fire, bypass them and cut off communications. But the houses, adapted for all-round defense, snarled with fire, and the unsuppressed machine guns shot the Red Army soldiers advancing across the square and along the ravines in the back. Turned into ruins, two beautiful examples of the “Stalinist Empire style” were literally dreamed of by the headquarters of the 13th Guards Rifle Division and its commander.

Preparations for the decisive assault began immediately after the unsuccessful offensive. The reasons for the failures were analyzed and a detailed diagram German defenses and firing points. To capture the “L-shaped house”, a detachment of 60 people was assembled from soldiers of the 34th Guards Rifle Regiment under the command of Senior Lieutenant V.I. Sidelnikov and his deputy lieutenant A.G. Isaeva. The detachment was divided into three assault groups of 12 people (submachine gunners and flamethrowers), as well as a reinforcement group (shooters, crews of anti-tank rifles, heavy and light machine guns), a support group (sappers and scouts) and a service group (signalmen).

At the same time, the second battalion of the 42nd Guards Regiment was preparing for the assault on the “House of Railway Workers.” The groups of fighters were also divided into three echelons. To bring the attack line as close as possible, trenches were secretly dug to the buildings - the work was carried out at night, the trenches were camouflaged during the day. It was decided to concentrate on the starting line before dawn, rush inside under cover of darkness, and fight in the building in daylight.

Organization and composition of the assault detachment under the command of Senior Lieutenant Sidelnikov. Diagram from the book “Fighting in Stalingrad”, published in 1944

On December 3 at four o'clock in the morning, assault groups began to advance to the front line. Suddenly it began to snow heavily. Large flakes of snow quickly covered the crater-filled ground; The commanders had to urgently look for camouflage suits and change the soldiers’ clothes. The final preparations were being completed, the guards were dismantling hand and anti-tank grenades, COP bottles and thermite balls from ampoules. Anti-tank gun crews under the command of Lieutenant Yu.E. Dorosh targeted the windows in the eastern wing of the “L-shaped house”, the flamethrowers crawled to the end of the building and took aim at the embrasures punched in the wall. By 06:00 everything was ready.

At 06:40, three red rockets flew into the sky, and a moment later the German machine-gun points at the end of the “L-shaped house” were flooded with streams of flamethrowers. Sidelnikov was the first to jump out of the trench and rush to the house, followed by the submachine gunners of the advanced detachment silently running behind him. The plan was a success - the Germans did not have time to come to their senses, and the Red Army soldiers, throwing grenades at the windows and holes in the walls, burst into the building without losses.

“Street Fight” is a canonical photograph by Georgy Zelma. A visual symbol of the Battle of Stalingrad, present on the title page of many domestic and foreign websites, books and publications dedicated to the epoch-making battle. Actually, the author of the article’s interest in this topic began with a clue to the place and circumstances famous photo. There is a whole series of photographs: in the first of them, the fighter in the center is still “alive”. The German strongholds have already been completely destroyed, there is no snow - according to the author, this is a reconstruction of the assault on the “Railway Workers' House” and the “L-Shaped House”, filmed in late February - early March 1943

In a huge building, in a maze of burnt-out apartments, narrow corridors and collapsed stairwells, small groups of Red Army soldiers slowly cleared the rooms and floors of the eastern wing. The garrison, which had come to its senses, was already taking up positions in the barricaded passages: inside the German stronghold was divided into sections and perfectly adapted for defense. A fierce battle broke out with renewed vigor. The squad commanders, firing rockets, illuminated the rooms and dark corners - in the reflections of short-term flashes, the Germans and Russians threw grenades at each other, colliding point-blank, converged in hand-to-hand combat, the outcome of which was decided by a timely pulled out knife, a brick that came to hand, or a comrade who arrived in time. In the walls of the apartments where the Germans were shooting back, Soviet soldiers punched holes with crowbars and threw petrol bottles and thermite balls inside. Ceilings were blown up by charges, flamethrowers burned out rooms and basements.

By 10:00, the assault groups of the 34th Guards Regiment had completely occupied the eastern wing of the “L-shaped house”, having lost half of their strength. The wounded detachment commander, Senior Lieutenant Vasily Sidelnikov, and his deputy, Lieutenant Alexei Isaev, were pulled out of the ruins; Lieutenant Yuri Dorosh was dying with a torn jaw and an empty TT in his hand on a pile of bricks. The sergeants took the initiative, taking command upon themselves.

While the battle for the "L-Shaped House" was in full swing, at 08:00 the neighboring "Railway Workers' House" was subjected to heavy fire from an artillery battalion and mortar companies. By the end of the two-hour artillery barrage, sappers from nearby trenches threw smoke bombs at the approaches to the building, and a series of red rockets soared into the sky. The mortar fire was moved behind the smoking ruins, blocking reinforcements from approaching the strong point, and the assault groups went on the attack.

Schemes from the “Brief description of defensive battles of the 13th Guards Rifle Division”

The fighters of the advanced detachment, having burst into the building and crushed the garrison guards, occupied the premises of the first floor. The German infantrymen, retreating to the second floor and hiding in the basement, desperately resisted. The second echelon groups that followed blocked the remnants of the German garrison, using explosives and flamethrowers to destroy pockets of resistance. While the battle was still going on in the basement and on the upper floors, the reinforcement group had already equipped positions for heavy and light machine guns, cutting off with fire the German infantry who were trying to come to the aid of their dying comrades. By 13:20, the “Railway Workers' House” was completely cleared of Germans. The second echelon fighters also managed to capture five dugouts located near the building. Repeated German counterattacks were repulsed.

Post-war aerial photo. On the left are the ruins of the northern wing of the "Railway Workers' House", on the lower right are the remains of the "L-shaped house"

In the "L-shaped house" the fierce battle dragged on until the evening. Having occupied the eastern wing, the Red Army soldiers could not advance further - a solid load-bearing wall was in the way. There was no way to get around it from the outside: the Germans occupied a well-fortified basement, keeping the approaches to the northern wing at gunpoint. At night, when the shooting died down, sappers brought boxes of explosives and laid 250 kg of tola against the wall on the first floor. While preparations were underway, the members of the assault squad were taken out of the building.

On the morning of December 4 at 04:00 there was a powerful explosion and an entire section of the huge house collapsed in a cloud of dust. Without wasting a minute, the Red Army soldiers rushed back. Making their way through the huge rubble, groups of fighters again occupied the eastern wing, and then cleared the northern wing - the remnants of the garrison retreated without a fight, only the German soldiers buried alive were shouting something in the rubbled basement.

The long-awaited news about the capture of the enemy's main resistance center was so stunning that the division headquarters did not believe it. Only when the divisional OP noticed Red Army soldiers waving their arms in the windows of the “L-shaped house” did it become clear that the goal had been achieved. For two months, drenched in sweat and blood, Rodimtsev’s guards unsuccessfully stormed German strongholds, losing their comrades in numerous attacks. Through trial and error, in a fierce struggle, Soviet soldiers won.

The success achieved was a significant event not only for the division, but also for the entire 62nd Army. Hot on the heels of cameraman V.I. Orlyankin filmed a reconstruction of the assault on both German strongholds, then these shots ended up in documentary « Battle of Stalingrad» 1943. The excerpt combined all the episodes of numerous attacks on both houses, and the order for the seizure was given by the army commander Chuikov himself.

Stills from the film "Battle of Stalingrad". The father-commanders wisely frown and draw arrows on the diagram; Soviet soldiers go on the offensive to the accompaniment of cheerful music. When you know how much blood paid for the capture of these ruins, the video looks completely different

Having cleared the “House of Railway Workers,” the assault groups of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment tried to build on their success and quickly drive the Germans out of another strong point—the four-story school No. 38, located 30 meters from the “L-shaped house.” But the bloodless units were no longer capable of this task, and the Red Army soldiers captured the ruins of the school only three weeks later, on December 26. In the area of ​​the Dolgiy and Krutoy ravines, the training and barrage battalions of Rodimtsev’s division that participated in the offensive on December 3-4 also did not achieve their goals and retreated to their original positions.

Scheme of the assault from the book “Battles in Stalingrad” and a German aerial photo of the area

Last fights

After the battles of December 3-4, silence fell in the center of Stalingrad. The wind swept snow over the crater-filled ground, the disfigured ruins of buildings and the bodies of the dead. The bridgehead of Rodimtsev’s division was calm, the enemy’s artillery and mortar attacks had stopped - the Germans were running out of ammunition and food, and the death throes of the 6th Army were approaching.

In the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment, in whose positions “Pavlov’s House” was located, a lot has changed. Senior Lieutenant A.K. became the commander of the 7th company instead of the deceased Naumov. Dragan, a participant in the battle for Central Station who returned after being wounded. Almost no one remained from the old garrison; most of the fighters were killed or wounded in the battle for the Milk House. In three months, Pavlov’s House, which stood at the forefront of the regiment’s defense, turned into a real fortress. Washing their hands bloody, with the every minute risk of being killed by a stray bullet or shrapnel, the garrison soldiers spent days digging trenches, underground passages and communication passages, equipping reserve positions and bunkers, and sappers laying mines and wire barriers in the square. But... no one tried to storm this fortress.

A shooting map of “Pavlov’s House” compiled by Lieutenant Dragan from memory and a February aerial photo of the area. Judging by the recollections, long-term earthen firing points with communication passages were dug along the perimeter of the building. An underground passage was dug to the ruins of the gas storage facility (built on the foundation of the Church of St. Nicholas), which stood in front of Pavlov’s House, and a remote position for heavy machine guns was equipped. The scheme suffers from inaccuracies: by January 5, 1943, the “L-shaped house” had already been liberated for a month

The year 1943 arrived. In the first half of January, the regiments of Rodimtsev’s division were transferred to the right flank of the 284th Infantry Division north of Mamayev Kurgan, with instructions to knock out the enemy from the working village of the Red October plant and advance in the direction of height 107.5. The Germans resisted with the despair of the doomed - in the burnt-out ruins of wooden blocks covered with snow, every basement or dugout had to be cleared with battle. During the January offensive, in last days During the battle for Stalingrad, the division again suffered heavy losses - many soldiers and commanders who managed to survive in the fierce battles of September and positional battles of October-December 1942 were wounded and killed.

On the morning of January 26, on the northwestern slopes of Mamayev Kurgan, Rodimtsev’s guards met with the soldiers of the 52nd Guards Rifle Division, Colonel N.D., who had overcome the Tatar Wall. Kozina. The northern group of Germans was cut off from the main forces of the 6th Army, but for another whole week, until February 2, led by the will of its commander, General Karl Strecker, stubbornly resisted the attacks of the Soviet troops.

At the same time, the Red Army soldiers of the 284th Infantry Division were advancing from the southern slopes of the mound to the center of Stalingrad, breaking into the defenses of the 295th Infantry Division from the flank. From the side of the Tsarina, units of the 64th Army under Lieutenant General M.S. were rushing into the center. Shumilov, as if anticipating his main trophy: on January 31, in the basement of a department store on the Square of Fallen Fighters, the commander of the 6th Army, Field Marshal Paulus, surrendered to army representatives. The southern group capitulated.

Excerpt from the film "Battle of Stalingrad" 1943. Soviet soldiers were driving demoralized Germans out into the cold not just somewhere in Stalingrad. Shooting location - courtyard the same school number 6. There were fierce battles for this building; its ruins, which cost Rodimtsev’s guards a lot of blood, were subsequently removed by Zelma. Linking the location to the photo of A. Skvorin

In February, the 13th Guards Rifle Division was returned to its old positions in the center of Stalingrad. Sappers cleared the ground strewn with metal and removed the wire fences. The guardsmen gathered and buried their fallen comrades - a huge mass grave appeared on the January 9 Square. Of the approximately 1,800 soldiers and commanders buried there, the names of only 80 people are known.

A series of photographs by Georgy Zelma, February 1943. On the left, a squad of sappers marches against the backdrop of the ruins of school No. 38; in the right photo, the same soldiers are seen against the backdrop of the “L-shaped house” and the “Railway Workers’ House.” These majestic ruins and the associated heroic story simply fascinated the photographer

Soon the remains of buildings and former strongholds were filled with many inscriptions. Armed with paint, political workers painted slogans and appeals, and noted the numbers of units that had recaptured or defended one or another line. On the wall of “Pavlov’s House,” which by that time had become famous throughout the country through the efforts of writers and journalists, also had its own inscription.

In the summer of 1943, the city, disfigured over many months of fighting, began to be restored from ruins. One of the first to be repaired was the Pavlov House, which was practically undamaged during the Battle of Stalingrad: only the end facing the square was destroyed.

After the November offensive and the battle for the Milk House, the wounded soldiers of the garrison were scattered in hospitals, and many never returned to Rodimtsev’s division. Guard junior sergeant Yakov Pavlov, after being wounded, fought with dignity as part of an anti-tank artillery regiment and was awarded more than one award. Newspapers published articles about the famous Stalingrad house, and the legend grew with new heroic details. In the summer of 1945, more significant fame overtook the eminent “houseowner”. The stunned Pavlov, along with lieutenant shoulder straps, was presented with the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin - Yakov Fedotovich, who had gone through “threat and hell,” pulled out his lucky ticket.

Award list of Ya.F. Pavlova most resembles another article by journalists from GlavPUR. The authors of the award did not particularly hide this, indicating at the end one of the creators of the story about the “heroic defense”. The award sheet describes in detail a completely fictitious battle for the building on January 9 Square - otherwise it would not be clear why the title of Hero would be given

After the war history legendary defense“Pavlov’s House” was literary modified more than once, and the four-story building itself became the center of the architectural ensemble on the new Defense Square. In 1985, a memorial wall-monument was built at the end of the house, on which the names of the garrison soldiers appeared. By that time, the Pulbat fighter A. Sugba, who deserted on November 23, was removed from the canonical lists, whose name also appeared in the lists of the ROA - in the first books of Pavlov’s memoirs, the Red Army soldier Sugba died heroically. The defense of the house was limited to 58 days, during which there were indeed minimal losses in the garrison - about what followed bloodbath in the “Milk House” they preferred not to remember. The edited legend fit perfectly into the emerging pantheon of the Battle of Stalingrad, eventually taking the main place in it.

The true history of the military operations of the 13th Guards Rifle Division of General Rodimtsev, with all the many days of fierce assaults on strongholds, unsuccessful attacks, heavy losses and hard-won victories, gradually faded into oblivion, remaining in unclaimed meager lines for a long time archival documents and untitled photographs.

Instead of a postscript

If we talk about the value of Pavlov’s House for the German command, it was practically absent. At the operational level, the Germans not only did not notice a separate house on the square, but also did not attach any importance to the small bridgehead of Rodimtsev’s division. Indeed, in the documents of the 6th Army there are references to individual Stalingrad buildings for which particularly stubborn battles took place, but “Pavlov’s House” is not one of them. The story of the “Paulus map”, on which the house was marked as a fortress, was told to the colleagues of Yu.Yu. Rosenman, chief of intelligence of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment, who allegedly saw this map himself. The story is more like a tale - there is no mention of the mythical map in other sources.

In the documents of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, the phrase “Pavlov’s House” appears only a couple of times - as an observation post for artillerymen (combat order) and as the place of death of one of the soldiers (loss report). There is also no information about numerous enemy attacks through the square on January 9; according to operational reports, the Germans mainly attacked in the area of ​​the State Bank (71st Infantry Division) and near the ravines (295th Infantry Division). After the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, Rodimtsev’s headquarters drew up “ Short description defensive battles of units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division"; in this brochure, the object “Pavlov’s House” appears on the diagram of strongholds - but by that time the building had already gained all-Union fame. During the battles of autumn 1942 - winter 1943. “Pavlov’s House” was not given much importance in Rodimtsev’s division.

In the post-war years, the topic of “legendary defense” was scrupulously studied by the writer L.I. Savelyev (Soloveychik), collecting information and corresponding with surviving veterans of the 42nd Guards Regiment. In the repeatedly republished book “The House of Sergeant Pavlov” in artistic form the events that took place in the sector of Rodimtsev’s division in the center of Stalingrad were outlined. In it, the author collected invaluable biographical information about the soldiers and commanders of the 42nd Guards Regiment; his correspondence with veterans and relatives of the victims is stored in Moscow in the State Archives of the Russian Federation.

It is worth mentioning the famous novel by Vasily Grossman “Life and Fate”, where the defense of the building on Penzenskaya Street became one of the main storylines. However, if you compare the diary that Grossman kept during the battle and the novel he wrote later, it is clear that the behavior and motivation of Soviet soldiers in the diary notes are strikingly different from the post-war reflection of the famous writer.

Any good story has its own collision, and the defense of the “Pavlov’s House” is no exception - the antagonists were former comrades in arms, the commandant of the Pavlov’s house and the garrison commander Afanasyev. While Pavlov was rapidly moving up the party ladder and reaping the fruits of the glory that had befallen him, Ivan Filippovich Afanasyev, blind after a concussion, was gropingly filling a book in which he tried to mention all the defenders of the famous house. The “copper pipes” test did not pass without a trace for Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov - the former commandant increasingly distanced himself from his colleagues and stopped attending post-war meetings, realizing that the number of places in the official pantheon of heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad was very limited.

It seemed that as a result, justice had triumphed when, after 12 long years, through the efforts of doctors, Afanasyev’s sight was restored. A book, in defiance of the official "House of Pavlov", called "House of Soldier's Glory", was published, and the commander of the "legendary garrison" himself was accompanied by a torch at the opening of the memorial complex on Mamayev Kurgan eternal flame, taking pride of place in the solemn procession. However, in the mass consciousness, the “Pavlov’s House” still remained a symbol of the heroism and dedication of Soviet soldiers.

Volgograd journalist Yu.M. tried to revive the topic in his book “A Splinter in the Heart”. Beledin, who published the correspondence of participants in the defense of the famous house. It covered many details that were inconvenient for the official version. The letters of the garrison soldiers showed open bewilderment at how Pavlov became the main character of their common story. But the position of the leadership of the Panorama Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad was unshakable, and no one was going to rewrite the official version.

Along with the surviving soldiers of the garrison, the former commander of the 3rd battalion, Alexei Efimovich Zhukov, wrote to the museum management, who saw with his own eyes the events that took place on the square on January 9. The lines of his letter, more reminiscent of a cry from the soul, are true to this day: “Stalingrad does not know the truth and is afraid of it.”

In July 1942, the Germans reached Stalingrad. By capturing this city on the Volga River, they would be able to cut off oil supplies from the south destined for the armies in the north. After numerous artillery attacks and air raids, the Germans launched a ground assault against the Russians, who were noticeably outnumbered.

In September, several units of the 6th German Army approached the central part of the city three blocks from the Volga. There they were met by Sergeant Yakov Pavlov and his soldiers, who took up defensive positions in an apartment building.

Pavlov and his soldiers managed to hold back the Germans for two months until reinforcements arrived, which helped push the fascist troops back.

Home takeover

September 27 to the detachment Soviet army, consisting of 30 people, was ordered to return a four-story residential building captured by the Germans with good review to a large square in the center of Stalingrad. Since the lieutenants and senior sergeants of the platoon had already either died or been wounded, the fighters were led into battle by 24-year-old junior sergeant Pavlov Yakov Fedotovich.

After a fierce battle in which 26 of the 30 men in his platoon were killed, Pavlov and three of his soldiers seized control of the house and began to fortify and organize the defense.

The house had an excellent view of almost a kilometer in three directions - east, north and south. There were 10 civilians hiding in the basements of the house, who had nowhere else to go.

Reinforcement and home defense

A few days later, another 26 Soviet soldiers, led by Lieutenant Ivan Afanasyev, who formally took command, finally reached Pavlov’s detachment. They brought with them the necessary provisions and weapons, including land mines, machine guns and PTRD-41. Four layers of barbed wire and minefields were installed on the approaches to the house, and heavy machine guns looked out onto the square from the windows of the house.

By that time, German infantry, supported by a tank platoon, attacked every day, sometimes several times a day, trying to dislodge the enemy from their positions. Pavlov realized that if you let the tanks come within 22 meters and then fire an anti-tank rifle from the roof, you could penetrate the top armor of the turret at its thinnest point, and the tank would not be able to raise the gun high enough to fire back. During this siege, Pavlov is believed to have destroyed nearly a dozen tanks with his anti-tank rifle.

Later, the Soviet defenders managed to dig a tunnel through the wall of the basement of the house and establish a communication trench with another post of Soviet soldiers. Thus, when the Soviet ships that survived the German artillery and air bombardment finally crossed the Volga, food, supplies and, most importantly, water began to flow into Stalingrad. Periodically, 19-year-old Anatoly Chekhov visited the fighters, who liked to conduct aimed fire from the roof of the house. was a real paradise for snipers - it is believed that about 3,000 Germans died from sniper bullets alone in Stalingrad. Chekhov alone accounted for 256 Germans.

Wall of Dead Germans

In the end, an aerial bomb destroyed one of the walls of the house, but Soviet soldiers continued to hold off the Germans. Every time the enemy crossed the square and tried to encircle them, Pavlov's platoon rained down such a barrage of machine-gun fire, mortar shells and 14.5 mm PTRD shots that the Germans had to retreat with serious losses.

By November, after numerous raids, Pavlov and his soldiers had to retreat between salvos and, they say, they literally raked away walls of German bodies so that they would not block their view.

By the way, on German maps Pavlov’s House was depicted as a fortress.

At one point, the Germans controlled 90% of the city and split the Soviet forces into three, leaving the Volga behind.

The history of the city also knew other heroic centers of resistance, for example, in the north, where the struggle for large factories lasted for several months.

Pavlov and his soldiers held the house for two months, until November 25, 1942, when the Red Army launched a counteroffensive.

Crucial moment

The Battle of Stalingrad lasted from July 1942 until February 1943, when German troops, surrounded on all sides, surrendered.

The Soviet army suffered enormous losses of 640,000 killed, missing or wounded soldiers and 40,000 civilians. 745,000 Germans were killed, missing or wounded; 91,000 were captured. Of the prisoners of war, only 6,000 returned to Germany.

One of the most powerful German armies was completely destroyed, and the Red Army, against all odds, proved that it could not only heroically defend itself, but also attack. This was the turning point of the Great Patriotic War and the entire

The further fate of Sergeant Pavlov

Sergeant Pavlov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin, the Order October revolution, two Orders of the Red Star and other medals. The residential building he defended was renamed Pavlov's House.

The building was later restored, and now one of its walls is decorated with a monument made from the bricks of the original building. Pavlov's house is located in Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad). Yakov Pavlov was demobilized in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant and joined the Communist Party. He was elected three times as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. Pavlov died on September 29, 1981.

Why did the Krauts call this battle the “rat war”? Why did the Nazis need this city? Blitzkrieg plans. Why was Pavlov's House so important? If we hadn't won, WHAT would have happened...

The Battle of Stalingrad is the bloodiest battle in human history. About 2 million soldiers died during the defense of the city.

The Fuhrer needed Stalingrad for 2 reasons:

Use Stalingrad to seize the oil of the Caucasus.

Humiliate Stalin by destroying the city that bears his name.

Any strategist, looking at the balance of forces before the Battle of Stalingrad, would have predicted the death of the Red Army. But not a victory!!!

This battle lasted 200 days and nights.

Stalin did not allow the citizens to be evacuated - after all, this way the soldiers would better defend the city.

The most terrible the day was August 23... The Germans had 6 times more planes than the Soviet troops. The Wehrmacht hoped to destroy the city by bombarding it with high-explosive and incendiary bombs. And then - they thought - all that remains is to occupy the burned Stalingrad...

Blitzkrieg! One powerful blow and the battle is over!

By the way, Türkiye was going to attack the USSR from the south. In case of successful capture of Stalingrad.

On August 23, Soviet planes were destroyed. A massive attack from the Fritz swept through the city like an avalanche. The city center turned into ruins and ashes... A colossal fire began. 40 thousand civilians died that day...

The Nazis went on the offensive to occupy the city. BUT! Russian riflemen appeared from somewhere and hand-to-hand fighting broke out. Here the forces were approximately equal: the Germans could not use either aviation or artillery! Street by street, house by house - Soviet soldiers slowly retreated...

It's begun for the Germans the most fierce battles during the entire war. They called them "Rattenkrieg" ("Rat War").

The fighting took place on the ground and underground: fighters dug tunnels and entire systems of underground tunnels. Every home or business there were basements!

The Germans said that the purpose of thisunderground war - get to the bottom of hell andsummon demons from there ... That's when the Germans came up with STEEL HELMETS.

It happened more than once that these tunnels were buried alive... Houses with strong walls that could withstand artillery attacks were turned into fortresses.

Stalingrad is a city located on the western bank of the Volga. Pavlov's house and Gerhardt's mill were the HIGHEST, the overview of which was about a kilometer! After the houses there was a steep descent to the Volga. If the Krauts occupied the houses, Soviet troops It would have been very, very sad later: thousands of soldiers would have died storming the heights...

The defense of Pavlov's house was 58 days. The Germans intensively attacked - sometimes up to several attacks per day!!! Several times they occupied the 1st floor... But the Soviet soldiers fiercely defended themselves. A trench was dug from the house through which the soldiers received food and ammunition.

Where did the house get its name?

Yakov Pavlov led the reconnaissance group (3 fighters). They knocked out several Krauts from a 4-story building and discovered that the house had been defended by our residents for two days! Civilians lived in the basement of the house. Pavlov, his soldiers and residents held the defense of the house for 3 days!!! Then a machine-gun platoon of guard Lieutenant Ivan Afanasyev (24 soldiers) arrived.

Afanasyev built the defense very competently - in 58 days only three soldiers died.

58 days... On German military maps the house was listed as "fortress". Sergeant Pavlov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and Lieutenant Afanasyev received the highest military award of the USSR - the Order of the Red Banner.

The main citadels of the battle of Stalingrad were its large factories - tractor, "Red October", "Barricades" - in their numerous workshops battles raged for a long time.

On November 19, the Soviet Union launched a counteroffensive and on November 23, the encirclement was completed. The USSR did the unprecedented: in a short period, about a million people joined the ranks of the Red Army! These were not just “newbies” - they had already been trained, and they had weapons - not like in the first months of the war. They decided the outcome of the battle: about 230 thousand soldiers of the Nazi coalition were surrounded.

Paulus asked to retreat. Hitler refused. There was no supply. Soviet air defense thwarted all Goering's plans to supply the encircled troops. The Russian winter has begun... Frostbitten, hungry, doomed Wehrmacht soldiers fought furiously to the last...

Von Paulus did not carry out the Fuhrer’s order to “shoot himself,” but surrendered.

Of the 110 thousand soldiers captured in Soviet labor camps, about 5,500 survived and returned to Germany.

The Battle of Stalingrad is a victory over the troops of Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary and Croatia.

A difficult victory... It changed the course of history: Turkey abandoned the attack on the USSR, Japan also canceled the “Siberian” campaign.

If it were not for the courage of Soviet soldiers and residents of Stalingrad... USSR... 2 more fronts...

Eternal glory to you, defenders of Stalingrad!

Pavlov's house became one of the historical sites of the Battle of Stalingrad, which still causes controversy among modern historians.

During fierce fighting, the house withstood a considerable number of counterattacks from the Germans. For 58 days, a group of Soviet soldiers bravely held the defense, destroying more than a thousand enemy soldiers during this period. In the post-war years, historians carefully tried to restore all the details, and the composition of the commanders who carried out the operation led to the first disagreements.

Who held the line

According to the official version, the operation was led by Ya.F. Pavlov, in principle, is associated with this fact and the name of the house, which he subsequently received. But there is another version, according to which Pavlov directly led the assault, and I.F. Afanasyev was then responsible for the defense. And this fact is confirmed by military reports, which became the source for reconstructing all the events of that period. According to his soldiers, Ivan Afanasyevich was a rather modest person, perhaps this pushed him into the background a little. After the war, Pavlov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Unlike him, Afanasiev was not awarded such an award.

Strategic importance of the house

An interesting fact for historians was that the Germans designated this house on the map as a fortress. And indeed the strategic importance of the house was very important - from here there was a wide view of the territory from where the Germans could break through to the Volga. Despite daily attacks from the enemy, our soldiers defended their positions, reliably closing the approaches from enemies. The Germans who took part in the assault could not understand how the people in Pavlov’s house could withstand their attacks without food or ammunition reinforcements. Subsequently, it turned out that all provisions and weapons were delivered through a special trench dug underground.

Is Tolik Kuryshov a fictional character or a hero?

Also a little-known fact that was discovered during the research was the heroism of an 11-year-old boy who fought with Pavlovians. Tolik Kuryshov helped the soldiers in every possible way, who, in turn, tried to protect him from danger. Despite the commander's ban, Tolik still managed to accomplish a real feat. Having penetrated one of the neighboring houses, he was able to obtain important documents for the army - the capture plan. After the war, Kuryshov did not advertise his feat in any way. We learned about this event from surviving documents. After a series of investigations, Anatoly Kuryshov was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Where were the civilians?

Whether there was an evacuation or not - this issue also caused a lot of controversy. According to one version, there were civilians in the basement of the Pavlovsk house for all 58 days. Although there is theory that people were evacuated through dug trenches. Yet modern historians adhere to the official version. Many documents indicate that people were indeed in the basement all this time. Thanks to the heroism of our soldiers, no civilians were harmed during these 58 days.

Today Pavlov's house has been completely restored and immortalized with a memorial wall. Based on the events related to the heroic defense of the legendary house, books have been written and even a film has been made, which has won many world awards.