Rostov rifle regiment of the national militia

Rostov separate rifle regiment of the national militia

• Garrison of the city ​​of Rostov-on-Don , 56th Army, Southern Front
• 339th Infantry Division , 56th Army, North Caucasus Front
• 339th Infantry Division, 56th Army, Black Sea Group of Forces of the Transcaucasian Front

In pursuance of the decree of the Council of People 's Commissars of June 24, 1941 on the creation of fighter battalions in the front line from among volunteers to combat spy- sabotage and landing groups of the enemy, the Rostov City Party Committee and the city executive committee decided to form detachments of the Rostov people's militia . On July 10, the head of the Rostov garrison, Major General A. A. Grechkin, issued an order to form the Rostov Rifle Regiment of the People’s Militia ^[1] . On November 10, 1941, it included the Rostov Communist Regiment of the People’s Militia, which consisted of communists of party organizations of industrial enterprises, institutions and educational institutions of the city, mostly of non-conscript age, which was formed on October 15 ^[2] . The total number of the regiment at the time of his speech on the front line was about 3,000 people.

Battle Path

The Rostov rifle regiment of the people's militia adopted baptism of fire on November 20, 1941, when the advanced units of German troops had already entered Rostov . On this day, the military council of the 56th Army ordered the army formations, which suffered heavy losses in defensive battles , to retreat to the left bank of the Don and take up defense there. The units of the Rostov garrison, which were based on the 33rd motorized rifle regiment, the 230th convoy regiment of the NKVD and the Rostov national militia regiment, were entrusted with covering the withdrawal and crossing across the Don of Soviet troops. Stable resistance of these units ensured the successful withdrawal of troops of the 56th Army to new positions.

When preparing the Rostov offensive operation , the units of the Rostov garrison were tasked with first to force the Don and gain a foothold on the right bank of the river. On the night of November 27-28, the 2nd battalion of the regiment, headed by the commander of the battalion Repin G.K. (before the war, engineer of the Kavelectromontazh trust ) crossed the Don ’s thin ice in the area of ​​the cement-slate plant and entrenched in the ruins of the main building. Then the rest of the regiment crossed the river. Having seized the bridgehead on the right bank, from the cement-slate plant to the railway bridge, the militia held it until the main forces arrived. On the night of November 28-29, militias armed only with handguns and grenades attacked enemy pillboxes , throwing them with bundles of grenades. At 9 a.m., the regiment broke the enemy’s defenses and began to develop the offensive inland, freeing the Zheleznodorozhny district and the central part of Rostov . For skillful military operations during the liberation of the city, high combat efficiency, courage and bravery of personnel on December 29, 1941 the Rostov regiment of the national militia was enlisted in the personnel units of the Red Army .

In July 1942 , when German troops again approached Rostov , the regiment was tasked with: occupying the defense on the site of the village named after Chkalov –– the airport –– the village of Aksayskaya and to cover the crossings over the Don , along which units 56 A. retreated. The regiment left the city at the last moment and its crossing over the Don passed under massive enemy bombardment. Out of 2,000 people who came from Rostov , only about 800 militias left for the village of Kagalnitskaya .

In the fall of 1942, the regiment, included in the 339th Infantry Division , fought in the foothills of the Caucasus , defended the Papaya Pass , covering the Novorossiysk – Tuapse road ^[3] . By October, only 140 people remained in the regiment ^[4] .

For the courage and heroism shown in the battles for the city of Rostov-on-Don and the North Caucasus , 37 fighters and commanders of the Rostov rifle regiment of the national militia were awarded orders and medals ^[5] .

Regiment Composition

• Headquarters
• Three rifle battalions
• Separate communication platoon
• Separate sanitary platoon ^[6]

Shelf Headquarters

Regiment Commanders:

• July 1941 - August 1942 - Mikhail Varfolomeev (before the war - captain of the reserve, deputy director of the car assembly plant)
• August - September 1942 - Nikolay Fyodorovich Skachkov, major (prior to appointment - deputy commander regiment for combat unit)

The commissar of the regiment - Shtakhanovsky Porfiry Aleksandrovich (before the war - head of the personnel department of the North Caucasian Railway)

Chief of Staff - Plyutto Vasily Vasilievich (before the war - an employee of the North Caucasus Railway)

• In memory of the Rostov rifle regiment of the people's militia, its name was assigned to one of the squares of Rostov-on-Don . In 2005, a memorial sign was erected on the square.
• The names of fifteen heroes of the militia: M. A. Varfolomeyev ^[7] , A. S. Kataev ^[8] , V. P. Tekuchev ^[9] , T. A. Malyugina , A. A. Arefiev ^[10] , N. F. Skachkova, P. M. Yufimtseva , G. A. Derevyanko, M. M. Gorbachev, F. Ya. Ishchenko ^[11] , A. A. Ivakhnenko, Sasha Chebanov ^[12] , P. A. Shtakhanovsky, K Popovsky, A. A. Samoshkin ^[13] assigned to the streets of the city.
• A monument was erected at the fraternal cemetery in the Kirovsky district of Rostov . The inscription was made on the facade of the pedestal : “Here are buried the soldiers of the Rostov regiment of the national militia who died during the liberation and defense of the city of Rostov-on-Don on November 20-29, 1941. Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the battles for freedom and independence of our country . ”
• Memorial plaques were erected on the buildings of the Rostov State University of Civil Engineering, secondary schools No. 43 and No. 60 in memory of the fact that here in the first months of World War II units of the Rostov regiment of the national militia were formed.
• In the city physical and mathematical lyceum No. 33 (former secondary school No. 33) a museum of the Rostov people's militia was created; The Lyceum itself bears the name of the Rostov Rifle Regiment of the People’s Militia ^[14] , as indicated by the commemorative plaque on the building of the Lyceum.

• Commemorative plaque
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  Third Militia Battalion

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  Malyugina and Ivakhnenko

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  On the building of lyceum № 33

• “Not only soldiers went into battle” (on the first occupation of Rostov-on-Don in November 1941) // Molot newspaper No. 177–178 of 02/02/2005.