The story of Nikolai Sirotinin first becamepublic domain back in 1958. Then an unknown to anyone the librarian of the village of Sokolniki V. Melnik described the story of the confrontation of the artillery soldier by the enemy tank battalion. Nikolai Sirotinin, whose feat today remains a vivid example of the personal heroism of the Soviet soldier, became the main character of this story.
Nikolay Sirotinin: data about the fighter
В семье Владимира Кузьмича Сиротинина и Елены Korneyevna Sirotinina March 7, 1921, a son was born, called him Nicholas. The boy's father worked as a locomotive machinist, his mother was engaged in housekeeping and raising children, there were three other children besides Kolya in the family. There lived a family in the city of Oryol. After graduation, it is known that Nikolai worked at the Tekmash plant. In 1940, he was called to the front. He served as an ordinary fighter of the Red Army near Polotsk.
Nikolai Sirotinin: feat
In June 1940 the Belarusian city of Krichevattempted to occupy the 4th Panzer Division, which was in the group of troops of Heinz Guderian, one of the prominent German commanders. Separate parts of the 13th Soviet Army were forced to retreat. To cover the withdrawal of the column, the support of artillery was needed. The gun remained with two — the battery commander and the twenty-year-old, frail lad Sirotinin Nikolai Vladimirovich. The gun was hidden on a collective farm field in high rye. The Russian dislocation was good, the gun stood on a hill, but the enemy did not see them. Before the gunners opened the review of the road and the bridge across the Dobrost river.
July 17, 1941 a column of German tanks leftto the highway. The battery commander coordinated the firing of the guns. The first shot Sergeant Sirotinin knocked out the first tank on the bridge, the second hit the armored personnel carrier that closed the column. So the young fighter managed to create a cork. The enemy, in turn, decided that he was dealing with a whole battery of guns and at least a dozen soldiers.
At this time, the lieutenant spotter was injured andretreated to the rest of the parts. Nikolay was supposed to follow the example of his commander, but Sirotinin saw that he still had 60 projectiles, he stayed to restrain the onslaught of the enemy.
There was a traffic jam on the bridge, two tanks tried to push the wrecked car, but the same fate awaited them. As a result, the hero Sirotinin knocked out 11 tanks, 6 armored personnel carriers, 57 infantry.
Only two hours later the enemy commanddetermined where the gun Nicholas. By this time he had three shells left. At the end of the battle, the artilleryman shot from a carbine, but he was not given a living, although the German commander offered this option.
Nikolai Sirotinin, whose feat went intothe history of World War II, was buried as a hero in the village of Sokolnici by the German military. Enemies for a long time could not believe that they were opposed by only one Russian.
The story was restored thanks to the notes of General Friedrich Handlef, Commander of the 4th Panzer Division. Yes, and fellow villagers of Sokolniki village heard a triple volley fired into the sky.
Fiction or real story?
Nikolai Sirotinin, whose feat was an examplecourage and valor on the fronts of World War II, when the enemy was strong, and the Russian soldier had only a gun, became known throughout the country. This story was published by a local historian from Krichev M.F. Melnikov in the magazine "Spark" in 1958. Modern researchers decided to trace the authenticity of the battle near Sokolnichi and found out that indeed such a defensive operation was carried out and the Soviet troops actually managed to detain the enemy on the approaches to the city.
Also today is the fact that this featSoviet soldier Nikolai Sirotinin was reissued two years later in Literary. In this article, the story is overgrown with facts, and the downed technology has become much more.
In 1987, in the book “Our Edge of Dear Centuries”, this local historian published the story “A Word about a Great Soldier,” in which he embellished a legend.
Was there Nikolai?
Among the researchers of the Great Patriotic Warof the Soviet period, such inconsistency of the facts for some reason was not in doubt. Modern historians have more closely approached the study of this issue. They found out that Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin was in fact such a soldier, but he only served in another division that had never been in this area.
But be that as it may, the battle near the village of Sokolniki took place. This is a historically authentic fact, documented.
As for the feat that Sirotinin accomplished,documentary evidence, except for notes of local lore, does not exist. The graves of the Russian hero soldier either. According to eyewitnesses, she was transferred to another place, and the remains of Nicholas were reburied in a mass grave. The legendary warrior did not receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union due to the lack of photographs from the relatives of the deceased. He was honored posthumously only with the Order of the Great Patriotic War, I degree.
One of the researchers of our time "unearthed"the real story of the battle on the Warsaw highway, which took place in those days on the outskirts of the city of Krichev. The Red Army troops began to hastily retreat across the river Sozh. The 2nd Rifle Battalion under the command of Nikolai Andreevich Kim, a Korean by nationality, was to cover the soldiers. From the first day of the war he joined the ranks of the Red Army, went this way to the end and remained alive. It was his fighters who fulfilled their mission, detained the enemy and allowed the Russian soldiers to redeploy without significant losses.
"Nikolai Sirotinin. One soldier in the field. The feat of the 41st year"
In 2013, one of the patrioticChannels was shot forty-minute film about the heroes of World War II (in particular, the author tried to perpetuate the lone gunner Nikolai Sirotinin). As documentary evidence was provided archival evidence of the inhabitants of the village of Sokolnici. The picture was very instructive, emotional and motivating. The author tried to show that Nikolai Sirotnin accomplished his feat not because he was fearless, but because of a sense of duty and love for his Motherland.
The role of lonely heroes in the Great Patriotic War
During the Great Patriotic War, there werepeople whose personal example made it possible to raise the morale of the Russian warrior who was very weak in the early years of defeat on the entire front line. It is thanks to such heroes, let the legendary, repulsed fascist Germany. Nikolai Sirotinin is a collective image of a Russian soldier, a hero who alone can stop a division and defeat an enemy with his bare hands.
Such legends are important for the upbringing of modernyoung people, but do not forget about the real people who have made a real feat. At the cost of their lives, they overcame the enemy, enabled us, future generations, to live in peacetime and breathe deeply.
