Born May 21, 1889 in x. Frontier village of Berezovskaya, Ust-Medveditsky district of the Don Cossacks. Died December 13, 1978. Full St. George Cavalier, Hero Soviet Union.
In 1911 he was called up for military service. During the First World War in the army, in the troops of the Southwestern and Romanian fronts. The first St. George Cross was awarded to the clerk of the 15th regiment of the 1st Don Cossack division K. Nedorubov for the resourcefulness and heroism shown by him on December 16, 1914 during reconnaissance, when he alone captured 52 Austrians. Member of the Brusilovsky breakthrough. Podhorunzhy.
In 1918 - 1920. on the fronts of the Civil War Squadron commander, acting. commander of the cavalry regiment. As part of the troops of the 9th Army, and then the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Armies of the Southern Front, he participated in hostilities on the territory of the Ust-Medveditsky District, in the Salsky steppes, in Northern Tavria, in the Crimea.
Returning from the front, he worked as chairman of the village council x. Frontier. In 1930, he headed one of the first collective farms in the Berezovsky district.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a militia corps was formed in the Stalingrad region. K. I. Nedorubov took an active part in the creation of the consolidated Don cavalry division of the Cossack hundreds. In the spring of 1942, the division went to the front as the 15th Don Cossack Cavalry Division (later the 11th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Division). K.I. Nedorubov participated in the battles near Azov, Rostov, Bataysk. Squadron commander. In fierce battles for the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory, from July 30 to August 2, 1942, the squadron under the command of Nedorubov destroyed over 200 enemy soldiers and officers, about 70 personally by K. I. Nedorubov.
September 5, 1942 in the battle near the village. Kurinsky of the Krasnodar Territory K.I. Nedorubov threw hand grenades at 3 machine-gun and 2 mortar positions of the enemy. He was wounded, but did not leave the battlefield. Height has been taken.
On October 16, 1942, near the village of Maratuki in the Krasnodar Territory, a squadron under the command of K. I. Nedorubov repelled four attacks by the Nazis, destroying up to 200 enemy soldiers and officers.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated October 26, 1943, the commander of the cavalry squadron of the 41st Guards Cavalry Regiment K. I. Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
AT last years lived and worked in St. Berezovskaya. On October 15, 1967, he was a member of the honorary escort that delivered the torch, lit from the Eternal Flame on the Alley of Heroes, to Mamaev Kurgan.
Honorary citizen of the village of Berezovskaya, Danilovsky district, Volgograd region. Streets in the village of Berezovskaya, Volgograd Region and in the city of Khadyzhensk, Krasnodar Territory, are named after K. I. Nedorubov. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya.
Cossack Nedorubov. Video
Cossack Konstantin Nedorubov was a full Cavalier of St. George, received a nominal checker from Budyonny, became a Hero of the Soviet Union even before the 1945 Victory Parade. My golden star He wore the hero along with the "royal" crosses.
Khutor Rubizhny
Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was born on May 21, 1889. The place of his birth is the village of Rubezhny, the village of Berezovskaya, the Ust-Medveditsky district of the Don army region (today it is the Danilovsky district of the Volgograd region).
The village of Berezovskaya was indicative. 2524 people lived in it, it included 426 households. There was also a magistrate, and a parish school, and medical centers, and two factories: a tannery and a brick one. There was even a telegraph office and a savings bank.
Konstantin Nedorubov received elementary education in a parochial school, he learned to read and write, to count, listened to the lessons of the Law of God. Otherwise, he received a traditional Cossack education: from childhood he rode and knew how to handle weapons. This science was more useful to him in life than school lessons.
"Full Bow"
Konstantin Nedorubov was called up for service in January 1911, he ended up in the 6th hundred of the 15th cavalry regiment of the 1st Don Cossack division. His regiment was quartered in Tomashov, Lublin province. By the beginning of the First World War, Nedorubov was a junior officer and commanded a half-platoon of regimental scouts.
The 25-year-old Cossack earned his first George a month after the start of the war - Nedorubov, together with his Don scouts, broke into the location of the German battery, got prisoners and six guns.
The second George "touched the chest" of the Cossack in February 1915. Making a solitary reconnaissance near Przemysl, the officer stumbled upon a small farm, where he found sleeping Austrians. Nedorubov decided not to delay, waiting for reinforcements, threw a grenade into the courtyard and began to imitate a desperate battle with his voice and shots. From the German language, he is nothing but "Hyunde hoch!" did not know, but the Austrians had enough of that. Sleepy, they began to leave the houses with their hands up. So Nedorubov brought them to winter road to the regiment. There were 52 soldiers and one lieutenant taken prisoner.
Cossack Nedorubov received the third George "for unparalleled courage and courage" during the Brusilov breakthrough.
Then Nedorubov was mistakenly handed another George of the 3rd degree, but after that, in the corresponding order for the 3rd Cavalry Corps, his surname and the entry opposite it “St. George Cross of the 3rd degree No. 40288” were crossed out, “No. th degree" and reference: "See. Order for Corps No. 73 1916.
Finally, Konstantin Nedorubov became a full Cavalier of St. George when, together with his Cossack scouts, he captured the headquarters of a German division, obtained important documents and captured a German infantry general, its commander.
In addition to the St. George Crosses, Konstantin Nedorubov during the First World War was also awarded two St. George medals for courage. He ended this war with the rank of coroner.
White-red commander
The Cossack Nedorubov did not have to live long without a war, but in the Civil War he did not join either the Whites or the Reds until the summer of 1918. On June 1, he nevertheless entered, along with other Cossacks of the village, into the 18th Cossack regiment of ataman Peter Krasnov.
However, the war "for the whites" did not last long for Nedorubov. Already on July 12, he was taken prisoner, but was not shot.
On the contrary, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and became a squadron commander in the cavalry division of Mikhail Blinov, where other Cossacks who had gone over to the side of the Reds fought side by side with him.
The Blinovskaya cavalry division showed itself in the most difficult sectors of the front. For the famous defense of Tsaritsyn, Budyonny personally handed Nedorubov a nominal checker. For the battles with Wrangel, the Cossack was awarded red revolutionary trousers, although he was presented to the Order of the Red Banner, but did not receive it because of his too heroic biography in the tsarist army. Received Nedorubov in Civil and wounded, machine-gun, in the Crimea. A Cossack carried a bullet stuck in his lung until the end of his life.
Prisoner of Dmitlag
After the Civil War, Konstantin Nedorubov held positions "on the ground", in April 1932 he became a collective farm foreman in the Bobrov farm.
He did not have a quiet life here either. In the fall of 1933, he was convicted under article 109 "for losing grain in the field." Nedorubov and his assistant Vasily Sutchev fell under the distribution. They were accused “to the heap” not only of stealing grain, but also of damaging agricultural equipment, they were given 10 years in the camps.
In Dmitrovlage, at the construction site of the Moscow-Volga Canal, Nedorubov and Sutchev worked as best they could, but they knew how well, they could not do otherwise. The construction was handed over ahead of schedule - July 15, 1937. Nikolai Yezhov personally accepted the work. The leaders received an amnesty.
After the camp, Konstantin Nedorubov worked as the head of the horse-post station, before the war itself - as the supply manager of the machine-testing station.
"I know how to fight them!"
When the Great Patriotic War began, Nedorubov was 52 years old, he was not subject to conscription due to age. But the Cossack hero could not stay at home.
When the consolidated Don Cossack cavalry division began to form in the Stalingrad region, the NKVD dismissed Nedorubov's candidacy - they remembered both merits in the tsarist army and a criminal record.
Then the Cossack went to the First Secretary of the Berezovsky District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Ivan Shlyapkin, and said: “I’m not asking for a cow, but I want to shed blood for my homeland! Young people die by the thousands because they are inexperienced! I won four St. George's Crosses in the war with the Germans, I know how to fight with them.
Ivan Shlyapkin insisted that Nedorubov be taken into the militia. under personal responsibility. At the time, this was a very bold move.
"Spellbound"
In mid-July, the Cossack regiment, in which Nedorubov's hundred fought, repelled German attempts to force the Kagalnik River in the Peshkovo region for four days. After that, the Cossacks drove the enemy out of the farms of Zadonsky and Aleksandrovka, destroying one and a half hundred Germans.
Nedorubov especially distinguished himself in the famous Kushchevskaya attack. His award sheet states: “Having been surrounded under the village of Kushchevskaya, fire from machine guns and hand grenades, together with his son, he destroyed up to 70 fascist soldiers and officers.”
For the battles in the area of the village of Kushchevskaya on October 26, 1943, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In this battle, the son of Konstantin Nedorubov, Nikolai, received 13 wounds during mortar shelling and lay covered with earth for three days. Quite by accident, the inhabitants of the village stumbled upon him, burying the Cossacks in mass graves. Cossack women Matryona Tushkanova and Serafima Sapelnyak carried Nikolai to the hut at night, washed and bandaged his wounds and left. The fact that his son remained alive, Konstantin Nedorubov found out much later, but now he fought with redoubled courage, for his son.
Hero
At the end of August 1942, a hundred of Nedorubov destroyed 20 vehicles of the rear column with military equipment and about 300 Nazis. On September 5, in a battle for a height of 374.2 near the village of Kurinsky, Apsheronsky District, Krasnodar Territory, the Cossack Nedorubov single-handedly approached a mortar battery, threw grenades at it and destroyed the entire mortar crew from the PPSh. He himself was wounded, but did not leave the location of the regiment.
On October 16, near the village of Martuki, a hundred of Nedorubov repelled four SS attacks in a day and almost all died on the battlefield. Lieutenant Nedorubov received 8 bullet wounds and ended up in a Sochi hospital, then in Tbilisi, where the commission ruled that the Cossack was unfit for further service for health reasons.
Then, returning to his native village, he learned about the awarding of the Star of the Hero and that his son Nikolai was alive.
Of course, he didn't stay at home. He returned to the front and in May 1943 took command of a squadron of the 41st Guards Regiment of the 11th Guards Cavalry Division of the 5th Guards Don Cossack Corps.
He fought in Ukraine and Moldova, in Romania and Hungary. In December 1944, in the Carpathians, already with the rank of captain of the guard, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was again wounded. This time he was commissioned for good.
On his 80th birthday, the authorities gave the old Cossack a house, he was the first in the village to have a TV, but the role of Konstantin Nedorubov, “treated with honors,” was burdensome, he continued to lead a simple lifestyle, chopped wood himself, led the household with his family, continued to exercise until the end of his life with a heavy poker, wielding it like a pike.
The Cossack died in December 1978, half a year before his 90th birthday. He left - besides Nikolai - a son, George, and a daughter, Maria.
This monument was erected to the Cossack Konstantin Nedorubov by no means on his grave, it was erected to him in the hero city of Volgograd. And there is a monument to the Cossack by right - Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov is a unique personality.
Veteran three wars- 1st World, Civil and Great Patriotic. The only hereditary Don Cossack in Russia who had top honors both tsarist and Soviet Russia.
Konstantin Nedorubov met the 1st World War Nedorubov as a scout of the 15th Cossack regiment. From an ordinary Cossack scout, he rose to the head of a reconnaissance group.
He fought well. Once, alone, he captured 52 Austrian soldiers, led by an officer. However, the Austrians could also be understood - a two-meter-high Cossack, a slanting fathom in his shoulders, a saber in one hand, a grenade in the other, and he grins terribly. Monster, not human!
There were other exploits as well. For which he was awarded four St. George's crosses (full "St. George's bow") and was promoted to cadet.
AT civil war it didn’t work out that way with the awards, although he had a chance to fight for both the whites and the reds. And there, and there, twice.
Yes, he didn’t have any orders for this war, but they were awarded with red revolutionary harem pants.
In 1920, he preferred to part with military service in the Red Army - waking up, he fought! Although the Reds rose to the rank of commander of the 8th Taman Cavalry Regiment (by the way, Semyon Timoshenko, then unknown to anyone, began driving in his regiment). But eight scars on the body, like a bullet forever stuck in the chest, did not add health. But he retained his “George”, despite the new government, which greatly disliked royal awards.
In 1933 he "sat down" - being the chairman of the collective farm, he was "convicted under Article 109 of the Criminal Code" for the loss of grain in the field "". (Hunger. For the loss of grain, imaginary and obvious, the authorities punished without hesitation.) A dark story.
Sentence - 10 years in the camps. I ended up in Volgolag, at the construction site of the Moscow-Volga canal. He worked there for almost three years and was released "at will" ahead of schedule. According to the official wording "for shock work" (although they say that the writer Sholokhov, whom Nedorubov knew personally, helped the Cossack a lot here). However, at the construction site Nedorubov really worked "like a convict". And not because they were forced, but because he could not do anything halfway.
After the "imprisonment" in the rights was not affected.
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Konstantin Iosifovich was not subject to conscription due to age - whatever one may say, but 52 years old.
In October 1941, he volunteered for a Cossack cavalry division that was being formed in the city of Uryupinsk - they did not take it. Not even because of age, but p.k. former White Guard, and served time.
And Nedorubov went to the 1st Secretary of the Berezovsky District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Ivan Vladimirovich Shlyapkin. The old Cossack cried: "I'm not asking for the rear! .." Shlyapkin immediately called the head of the district NKVD: "Under my personal responsibility!"
Accepted. As well as the 17-year-old son of Nikolai Nedorubov.
And the third war began for the Cossack. The war is terrible. The most terrible of all three in which he participated.
Since July 1942 in battles. And the most terrible battles under the village of Kushchevskaya and around it. Chopped "to the bone"! Here both ours and the Germans did not even become brutalized, but became rabid. The 15th, 12th and 116th Don Cossack divisions against the 198th infantry, 1st and 4th mountain rifle divisions of the Wehrmacht, reinforced with everything that is possible. (They say that some Italians and Romanians even wormed their way there, however, German historians deny this.) Nobody wanted to give in!
The stamina of some was reinforced by their native land, some kind of internal rage and centuries-old military traditions, the stamina of others was a firm belief in themselves as in an ubermenshe, excellent combat skills and technical superiority. During August 2-3, Kushchevskaya changed hands three times.
Everything was in those battles - and the most severe mortar and artillery shelling, and hand-to-hand, and successful horse attacks on machine guns, and point-blank shooting, when the 70-round PPSh disc was fired in one burst in the chain of the attacking enemy (and not a single bullet went past the target ), and throwing grenades under tanks.
In one of the submissions for the award, it is written that in July-August 1942, Nedorubov personally destroyed over 70 enemy soldiers and officers in battles (confirming old rule that "an old lion is still a lion"), but in reality he killed much more (as Nedorubov himself said: "I killed 70 in just one day of fighting near Kushchevskaya").
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 25, 1943, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism of the guards shown, Lieutenant Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal "(No. 1302). In addition, he was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, and medals.
After being seriously wounded in the Carpathians, in December 1943, the Hero of the Soviet Union Guard Captain Nedorubov was recognized as a non-combatant and was dismissed from the ranks of the Red Army. He returned home to the village of Berezovskaya, Danilovsky district, Stalingrad region. Worked a lot.
Until the end of his life, he wore his "George" along with the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
The name of Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was given to the Volgograd Cadet Cossack Corps.
In the Soviet Union in its entire history there were only six people full St. George Knights Russian Empire, who were also awarded the highest Soviet award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. One of these six is a Don Cossack Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov.
I first learned about him only in 2014 from the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper. The article is written so beautifully that I will allow myself to quote some fragments and retell you the story of the Great Russian Warrior, participant and hero of three bloody wars. The description of the life and exploits of this man may seem like a myth and an unheard-of story. But what I'm about to tell you is the real truth.
So, first things first.
Konstantin Nedorubov was born on the Rubezhny farm in May 1889, and he announced his future exploits in the cradle. According to tradition, newborn boys in Cossack families were put a bullet in the cradle, watching the reaction of the baby. Kostya grabbed the bullet in his fist, after which the men said approvingly: "A good Cossack will grow up!". That's how he grew up. By the age of 18, even adult villagers feared his two-meter height and pood fists.
|
Konstantin was drafted into the army just before the First World War, and the famous General Brusilov was enrolled in the 14th Army Corps - the very one who would later develop and produce the legendary Brusilov Breakthrough. Nedorubov himself always spoke about his exploits with humor. Somehow he called him, a regimental scout, commander Samsonov and said: “Help, brother, the bone is stuck in my throat!”.
The Cossack was confused and began to make excuses: they say, I'm not a doctor, I don't understand anything about it. The staff officers burst out laughing and explained: the German battery is hindering our troops - here it is a bone in the throat, no one can get close to it. We decided to send scouts led by Nedorubov. And the Cossacks did not disappoint - they got close to the gunners, blew up their ammunition, and captured the gun crew. For this feat, Konstantin Nedorubov received his first George Cross.
|
And then feat followed feat. Saving his headquarters from a surprise attack by the Austrians. Capture alone!!! 52's!!! enemy soldier. decisive action and personal courage during the Brusilov breakthrough. Capture of the enemy headquarters with secret documents and German generals. For all this, Konstantin Nedorubov became a full Knight of St. George. In addition to the four St. George's crosses, the cadet Nedorubov was awarded two St. George's medals for military courage.
After being wounded, the hero returned to his native Don. And then the Civil War broke out in the country. Nedorubov was an apolitical person, because in the three years of the First World War he fought to his heart's content. However, there are times when if YOU are not in politics, then SHE will be in you. In May 1918, he was mobilized by the Whites to serve in the Don Army.
|
What happened next very clearly reflects everything that happened then both on the Don and in the country as a whole. In the same year 18, Nedorubov was captured by the Reds, who offered to go over to the side of the working class. Toli was persuaded by the Cossack, or in this way he wanted to save his life, it is not known, but only soon he was already fighting in the ranks of the Red Army. And in the 19th year ... was captured by the whites. They could put him against the wall, but out of respect for the merits of the full Knight of St. George, Nedorubov was asked to join the White Army. And he again found himself in the camp of the White Guards, so that soon he would again go over to the Reds.
|
Nedorubov fought bravely, rose to the rank of squadron commander and distinguished himself in the defense of Tsaritsyn. For battles with Wrangel, he was even presented to the Order of the Red Banner, at that time the young Republic had the highest order, but the hero’s award was not found. But the Cossack was awarded a nominal checker from Budyonny himself and red revolutionary trousers.
Red bloomers were then a very serious encouragement, later they would be glorified by the wonderful film “Officers” ... Konstantin Nedorubov ended the Civil War as a regiment commander with eight wounds and a keen desire to never take up arms again. Once he was caught by a patrol - he was considered a counter-revolutionary. But when they looked at the inscription on the seized saber, they were stunned. On it was written "To the squadron commander Konstantin Nedorubov for unparalleled heroism and courage in the defense of Tsaritsyn." And the signature Budyonny. The hero was immediately released with an apology.
|
But during the famine of the 30s, Nedorubov became the victim of someone's vile denunciation - during the sowing season, he, as a foreman, allowed the collective farmers, who were staggering from malnutrition, to cook a stew from seed grain. They "sewn" him the theft of grain and gave him 10 years, which Konstantin Nedorubov spent on the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal. The Cossack worked there like a damned one, and at the end of construction he was released ahead of schedule, as a shock worker.
Great Patriotic War. Nedorubov was already 52 years old, and he did not fall under the call to the Red Army, and he was not taken to the volunteers because of a criminal record. But the full Knight of St. George went to the authorities and obtained permission to fight the Nazis. Not only that, he himself formed a squadron of volunteers, becoming its commander. It was an amazing military formation, the backbone of which was made up of old Cossacks, who were 50-60 years old. But the old men fought in such a way that they terrified even the hardened Nazis.
|
In the battles near the village of Kushchevskaya, something happened that is sometimes shown in Hollywood films, and the reality of which is almost impossible to believe. However, witnesses confirm - Konstantin Nedorubov PERSONALLY!!! destroyed 70!!! enemy soldier. He cut them off with a Maxim machine gun mounted on a cart. By the way, his son Nikolai helped him in this.
In the battles near Kushchevskaya, the Cossacks of Lieutenant Nedorubov hacked to death in close combat more than two hundred German soldiers and officers. One of the German infantrymen who survived the Donets attack wrote the following in his letter home: “We hallucinated as Cossacks…”.
There is our answer to this European word "hallucinated" - an old Cossack saying - “There are never too many Cossacks, but there won’t be too few”.
What is more interesting - in one of the battles in the Caucasus, Nedorubov raised his Donets and Kuban to attack with a Cossack song and threw the Germans from an important height.
|
On October 26, 1943, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and his son Nikolai was awarded the Order of the Red Star. So Nedorubov became one of six full St. George Knights awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He met the victory over Germany in the rank of captain, with two orders of Lenin, with the Order of the Red Banner, as well as with 11 wounds and a severe concussion. Despite his wounds, he took part in the Victory Parade and even attended a reception at Stalin's.
The Cossack is a legend!
Original taken from choodo7 in Cossack - a legend!
Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich, Full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union.
Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich- Full St. George Cavalier, Hero of the Soviet Union. In the history of our country, there were only three complete Knights of St. George and at the same time Heroes of the Soviet Union: Marshal Budyonny, General Tyulenev and Captain Nedorubov.
The fate of Konstantin Nedorubov bizarrely resembles the fate of the hero of the Quiet Don, Grigory Melekhov. A hereditary Cossack, a native of a farm with the characteristic name of Rubezhny (now part of the Lovyagin farm in the Volgograd region), he, along with other villagers, was drafted to the German front. There it quickly became clear that the war, with all its horrors and passions, was the native element of the Don Cossack.
He was awarded the first St. George's Cross of the 4th degree for his heroism during one of the most difficult battles near the city of Tomashev. In August 1914, pursuing the retreating Austrians, despite a hurricane of artillery shelling, a group of Don Cossacks, led by constable Nedorubov, broke into the location of the enemy battery and captured it, along with servants and ammunition.
The second St. George Cross Konstantin Iosifovich received in February 1915 for a feat during the battles for the city of Przemysl. On December 16, 1914, while on reconnaissance and exploring the village, he noticed enemy soldiers in one of the yards and decided to take them by surprise. Throwing a grenade over the fence, he filed for German command: "Hands up, squadron, surround!" The frightened soldiers, together with the officer, threw down their weapons, raised their hands and hurried out of the yard into the street. Imagine their surprise when they found themselves under the escort of one Cossack on horseback with a saber in his hand. There was nowhere to go: the weapons were left in the yard, and all 52 prisoners were escorted to the headquarters of the Cossack regiment. Scout K.I. Nedorubov reported to the commander of his unit in full uniform that, they say, he had taken prisoner. But he does not believe and asks: “Where are the rest of the scouts? With whom did you take prisoners? The answer is: "One". Then the commander asked the enemy officer: “Who took you prisoner? How many were there? He pointed to Nedorubov and raised one finger.
The young Nedorubov received the third St. George Cross for distinction in battles in June 1916 during the famous Brusilov breakthrough (counteroffensive), where he showed selfless courage and courage. “His saber did not dry out with blood,” recalled the farm Cossacks who served in the same regiment with Nedorubov. And fellow countrymen from the farm jokingly suggested that he change his last name - from "Nedorubov" to "Pererubov".
During the three and a half years of participation in the battles, he was repeatedly wounded. He was treated in hospitals in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkov and Sebryakovo (now the city of Mikhailovka).
Finally that war is over. No sooner had the Cossack returned to his native farm than the Grazhdanskaya broke out. And again the bloody whirlwind of fateful events picked up the Cossack. It was all clear on the German front, but here, in the feather-grass Don and Tsaritsyno steppes, they cut their own with their own. Who is right, who is wrong - go figure it out ...
And fate in this confusion of thoughts and passions shook the Cossack Nedorubov, like Grishka Melekhov, with a living pendulum - from red to white, from white to red ... Unfortunately, this was a fairly typical situation for that confusing and bloody time. Ordinary Cossacks, who had not read Marx and Plekhanov and were not familiar with the basics of geopolitics, could not figure out who the truth was after all in this nightmarish civil strife. But even being on opposite sides of the barricades, they fought bravely - they didn’t know how to do it differently.
At one time, Konstantin Iosifovich even commanded the red Taman cavalry regiment and took an active part in the famous defense of Tsaritsyn.
In 1922, when the flashes of war finally subsided and it became clear that Soviet power had come in earnest and for a long time, Nedorubov returned to the village in the hope of taking a break from the two wars he had experienced. But they didn’t really let him live peacefully - after eight years, the Cossack was nevertheless repressed by commissars in leather jackets, recalling the service in both white and tsarist armies. This did not surprise Nedorubov in the least and did not break him down.
“I have been in not such troubles!” - the Knight of St. George decided for himself and "gave the country coal" at the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal. As a result, he was released ahead of schedule for shock work - this is according to official version. According to unofficial information, the camp authorities helped, having carefully studied his personal file. Still, in all ages, men of all tribes and peoples respected courage and courage ...
"Give me the right to die!"
When the Great Patriotic War broke out, the Knight of St. George Nedorubov was no longer subject to conscription - by age. By that time he was 53 years old.
But in July 1941, a squadron of Cossack militias began to form in the Don villages.
Together with his old fighting friend Sutchev, Konstantin Iosifovich resolutely went to the regional executive committee: “Give the right to apply all combat experience and die for the Motherland!” The regional executive committee was dumbfounded at first, then imbued. And they appointed the Knight of St. George as the commander of the newly formed Cossack squadron (only volunteers were recruited into it).
But here, as the Cossacks say, one problem “stuck”: his 17-year-old son, who had not reached military age by that time, “hung” on his father’s shoulders. Relatives rushed to dissuade Nikolai, but he was adamant. “Remember, son, there will be no indulgence for you,” Nedorubov Sr. said only. - I will be more strict with you than with experienced Cossacks. The son of the commander in battle must be the first! So the third war cut into the life of the Cossack Nedorubov ... And also the world war - like the first.
In July 1942, after the breakthrough German troops near Kharkov, along the entire length from Voronezh to Rostov-on-Don, a "weak link" was formed. It was clear that it was necessary at all costs to restrain the advance of the German armies to the Caucasus, to the coveted Baku oil. It was decided to stop the enemy at the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory.
The Kuban cavalry corps was thrown towards the Germans, which included the Don Cossack division. There were no other regular units on this sector of the front at that time. The unfired militias were opposed by selected German units, intoxicated by the successes of the first months of the war.
There, near Kushchevskaya, the Cossacks "bone to bone" met the Germans, at every opportunity imposing hand-to-hand combat on them. The Germans, however, did not like melee, but the Cossacks, on the contrary, loved. It was their nature. “Well, where else can we have Christ with the Hans, except in close combat?” they joked. From time to time (unfortunately, not very often) fate gave them such an opportunity, and then hundreds of corpses in gray overcoats covered the place of the fight...
Near Kushchevskaya, the Don and Kuban held the line for two days. In the end, the Germans' nerves burst, and with the support of artillery and aviation, they decided on a psychic attack. It was a strategic mistake. The Cossacks let them within a grenade throw and met them with heavy fire. The father and son of the Nedorubovs were nearby: the elder watered the attackers from a machine gun, the younger sent one grenade after another into the German line.
No wonder they say - the bullet is afraid of the brave - despite the fact that the air was buzzing from bullets, not one of them touched the shooters. And the whole space in front of the embankment was strewn with corpses in gray overcoats. But the Germans were determined to go all the way. In the end, skillfully maneuvering, they were able to bypass the Cossacks from two sides, squeezing them into their "branded" pincers. Assessing the situation, Nedorubov once again stepped towards death. "Cossacks, forward for the Motherland, for Stalin, for the free Don!" - the battle cry of the lieutenant tore off the villagers who were lying under the bullets from the ground. “Nedorub together with his son again went to seek his death, well, we flew after him,” the surviving colleagues recalled that famous battle near Kushchevskaya. “Because it was shameful to leave him alone…”.
The militia fought to the death. Sons took an example from their fathers, who looked up to the commander. They believed him, respected his combat experience, endurance. Years later, in his letter to the head of the “Battle of Stalingrad” department of the State Museum of Defense I. M. Loginov, Nedorubov, describing the battle near Kushchevskaya, noted that when he had to repulse the superior enemy forces on the right flank of the squadron, he was with a machine gun, and son with hand grenades "waged an unequal three-hour battle in close proximity to the Nazis." Konstantin Nedorubov many times rose to his full height on the line railway and point-blank shot at the Nazis. “Thus, out of three wars, I never had to shoot an enemy. I myself could hear my bullets clicking on Hitler's heads.
In that battle, together with their son, they destroyed more than 72 Germans. The fourth cavalry squadron rushed hand to hand and destroyed more than 200 German soldiers and officers.
If we didn’t cover the flank, it would be difficult for the neighbor, ”Konstantin Iosifovich recalled. - And so we gave him the opportunity to retreat without loss ... How my lads stood! And the son of Kolka that day showed himself well done. Didn't screw up. It was only after this fight that I thought I would never see him again.
During the furious mortar shelling, Nikolai Nedorubov was seriously wounded in both legs, arms and other parts of the body. He lay in the forest belt for about three days. Not far from the forest plantation, women were passing by, and they heard a groan. Women in the dark carried a seriously wounded young Cossack to the village of Kushchevskaya, and hid him for many weeks.
"Cossack conscientiousness" then cost the Germans dearly - in that battle, the Don people ground over 200 German soldiers and officers. Plans to encircle the squadron were mixed with dust. The commander of the group, Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm List, received an encrypted radiogram signed by the Fuhrer himself: Caucasian mountains point".
“We hallucinated as Cossacks…”
This is exactly what one of the German infantrymen wrote in his letter home, who survived the battle near Maratuk, where the Nedorubov’s Dons got to the coveted hand-to-hand combat and, as a result, as well as near Kushchevskaya, slaughtered over two hundred German soldiers and officers in close combat. For the squadron, this figure has become a trademark. “You can’t lower the bar lower,” the Cossacks joked, “well, why aren’t we Stakhanovites?”
"Nedorubovtsy" participated in raids on the enemy in the area of the farms Pobeda and Biryuchy, fought in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Kurinskaya ... According to the Germans who survived after the horse attacks, "these centaurs seemed to be possessed by a demon."
Donets and Kuban used all the numerous tricks that were accumulated by their ancestors in previous wars and carefully passed down from generation to generation. When the lava piled on the enemy, there was a drawn-out wolf howl in the air - so the villagers intimidated the enemy from afar. Already within the line of sight, they were engaged in vaulting - they spun in their saddles, often hanging from them, depicting the dead, and a few meters from the enemy they suddenly came to life and broke into the enemy’s location, chopping right and left and arranging a bloody pile-mala there.
In any fight, Nedorubov himself, contrary to all the canons of military science, was the first to go on the rampage. In one battle, he managed, speaking in official military language, "using the folds of the terrain, to secretly get close to three machine-gun and two mortar nests of the enemy and extinguish them with hand grenades." During this, the Cossack was wounded, but did not leave the battlefield. As a result, the height, studded with enemy firing points, sowing fire and death around them, was taken with minimal losses. According to the most conservative estimates, Nedorubov himself personally destroyed more than 70 soldiers and officers during these battles.
The battles in the south of Russia did not pass without a trace for the guards of Lieutenant K.I. Nedorubova. Only in the terrible battles near Kushchevskaya he received eight bullet wounds. Then there were two more wounds. After the third, difficult, at the end of 1942, the conclusion of the medical commission turned out to be inexorable: "I am not fit for military service."
During the period of hostilities for the accomplished feats, Nedorubov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner and various medals. On October 26, 1943, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, the Knight of St. George Konstantin Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. “Our Konstantin Iosifovich made the Red Star related to the St. George Cross,” the villagers joked about this.
Despite the fact that even during his lifetime he became a living legend, the Cossack Nedorubov did not acquire any special benefits and assets for himself and his family in peaceful life. But for all the holidays he regularly put on the Golden Star of the Hero along with four St. George's crosses.
The cadet of the 1st Don Cossack division, Nedorubov, with his attitude to awards, proved that power and the Motherland are completely different things. He did not understand why it was impossible to wear royal awards received for victories over a foreign enemy. About the “crosses” he said: “I walked in the front row at the Victory Parade in this form. And at the reception, Comrade Stalin himself shook his hand, thanked him for participating in two wars.
On October 15, 1967, a participant in three wars, the Don Cossack Nedorubov joined the torch-bearing group of three veterans and lit the fire of Eternal Glory at the monument-ensemble to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad on the Mamaev Kurgan of the hero city of Volgograd. Nedorubov died on December 11, 1978. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya. In September 2007, in the city of Volgograd, in the memorial and historical museum, a monument was opened to the famous hero of the Don, the full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubov. February 2, 2011 in the village of Yuzhny, the hero city of Volgograd, a ceremony was held for the grand opening of a new state educational institution“Volgograd Cadet (Cossack) Corps named after the Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubov.
