Nomokonov, Semyon Danilovich

He was born on August 12, 1900 in the village of Delyun (now in the Sretensky district of the Transbaikal Territory ) near the lake of the same name, where there was a large hamnigan settlement (descendants of the Daurians , Buryats , Evenks ^[1] ). Hamnigan by nationality. Hereditary hunter. Since childhood, he lived in the taiga . Already at 10 years old he was considered a real hunter. He had the nickname "Eye of a kite." When baptized at 15, he received the name Simon. In 1928 he settled in the village of Nizhny Stan of Shilkinsky , now the Tungokochensky district , where he joined the commune "Dawn of a new life", and then to the state farm . He continued to hunt, also worked as a carpenter .

Since August 1941 in the Red Army. Member of the Great Patriotic War since November 1941. At first he served as a nurse and sapper on the Kalinin front . He was surrounded, but went to his own. After he was noticed by the command as a well-aimed shooter, transferred to a sniper platoon:

It was one of the autumn days of 1941. Picking up another wounded man, he saw a German aiming in their direction. Nomokonov instantly threw up his rifle and fired, moreover, accurately. In the evening, the unit was only talking about a well-aimed shot of an orderly. He was enrolled in a sniper platoon. So began the path of a sniper - Transbaikal.

- Timur Lambaev. Fascist evil thunderstorm, 2007 ^[2]

His personal weapon was a three-line Mosin rifle without an optical sight. The sniper rifle with a telescopic sight appeared in the winter of 1942 and until the end of all military operations. The sniper said: “There can always be a target. At any time, manage to freeze, take cover. Get together in a lump, keep your head low, roll with your eyes . ” Sometimes, Nomokonov hit the enemy from 300, 500 meters, sometimes from a kilometer (1000 m). The sniper equipment was similar to hunting, Semyon Danilovich used a variety of ropes, laces, flyers, fragments of mirrors. The legs were woven from horsehair and roaming, allowing to be silent at a crucial moment ^[3] . He fought on the Valdai Heights , the Karelian Isthmus , Ukraine , Lithuania , East Prussia , and then during the Soviet-Japanese War in Manchuria . He served in 5 fronts, 2 divisions, 6 regiments.

The number of killed soldiers and enemy officers was noted on the tube, burning out dots (soldiers) and crosses (officer) ^[4] :

On a state-owned rifle you can not put marks. They say - you spoil. Yes, and they can replace it, but the war is over - passed it. The pipe is always with me.

According to official figures, the foreman of the 221st Infantry Division S. D. Nomokonov destroyed 368 opponents. The Germans gave him the nickname "Taiga Shaman." He was wounded eight times, suffered two concussions.

... From the outside, it really could seem that a hunter is known with unclean powers. He went on a mission with ropes, laces, flyers, with fragments of mirrors. He wandered on his feet, shoes woven from horsehair. And all this the sniper needed: the Broads took a silent step, he lured the enemy’s shot with mirrors, and with ropes, like a puppeteer, set in motion spare helmets worn on sticks. None of the platoon could surpass him in the art of disguise.

- Danilov A. Semyon Nomokonov - honorary soldier, 1975 ^[4]

He distinguished himself during the battles on the Valdai Heights, destroying one large German rank who arrived to inspect the front line ^[4] , according to some reports it was a major general, but so far historians have not been able to establish his name and exact rank.

In April 1942, he received a gift from fellow countrymen - a nominal watch - from the Chita delegation, who visited the front, headed by the secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU (b) G. I. Voronov .

He also worked as a shooting instructor, training over 150 soldiers in sniper training. Among his students was a fellow countryman T. S. Sanzhiev , on the combat account of which - 186 killed enemy soldiers and officers.

S. D. Nomokonov was repeatedly mentioned in the reports of the Sovinformburo , it was reported by front-line and central newspapers.

He finished the battle path at the spurs of Greater Khingan ^[2] :

In August 1945 , acting on the Transbaikal Front , sniper S. D. Nomokonov destroyed 8 ^[5] soldiers and officers of the Kwantung Army . By order of the front commander, S. D. Nomokonov, as a taiga hunter, he was given a nominal sniper rifle No. 24638, binoculars and a horse as a gift. Please allow the war hero to cross the border without hindrance.

- from the certificate of the commander of the 221st Mariupol, Khingan Red Banner Order of the Suvorov Rifle Division, Major General V. N. Kushnarenko

After the war he continued to work at the state farm . After retiring, in the mid-1960s he moved to the village of Zugalay, Mogoytuysky district, Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug , where he worked on the collective farm named after V.I. Lenin.

In the postwar period, Semyon Danilovich Nomokonov was a popular man. About his exploits, articles were published in newspapers and even in books. Ordinary people wrote to him with a sense of gratitude. Once a letter came from Hamburg to him. It wrote about a German woman who was wondering: “Maybe there was a mark on his pipe about the death of my son Gustav Erlich? “Did a man with such great merits pray for his victims.”

When they read this to Nomokonov, he dictated the answer to his son: “It is quite possible, dear woman, that the pipe that I smoked at the front also had a note about your son - he did not remember all the robbers and murderers who came with the war and who were on the sight of my rifle. And near Leningrad, mercilessly destroyed the fascist reptiles. If you, German women, had seen with your own eyes what your sons had done in Leningrad, you would have cursed them. ”

He died on July 15, 1973 .

Wife - Marfa Vasilievna ^[2] , 9 children and 30 grandchildren ^[4] .

• By order of the Armed Forces of the North-Western Front No. 765 dated 06/22/1942 the assistant to the platoon commander of the 529th Infantry Regiment of the 163rd Infantry Division, Senior Sergeant S. D. Nomokonov was awarded the Order of Lenin for initiating the sniper movement in the division, with On March 12, 1942, he destroyed 151 German soldiers and officers, and the company-trained snipers that he trained killed 153 soldiers. ^[6]
• By order of the Armed Forces of the 39th Army No. 477 dated 04/27/1945, a sniper of the 2nd battalion of the 695th Infantry Regiment of the 221st Infantry Division, Sergeant Nomokonov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the destruction of 27 German soldiers and the training of 98 excellent Soviet snipers. ^[7]
• By order of the 163rd Infantry Division No. 126 dated 12/12/1943, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star ^[8] .
• By order of the 221st page of the division No: 165 / n dated 09/28/1945, Sergeant Nomokonov was awarded the Order of the Red Star for personal destruction in the area of ​​the village of Khodatun during the crossing of Bolshoy Khingan 15 Japanese soldiers. ^[9]
• Medals, including:
• medal " For the capture of Koenigsberg " ^[10]
  • Medal "For Military Merit" ^[2]
  • medal “Z a victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 ” ^[11]
  • medal " For the victory over Japan "
  • Anniversary medal "For Valiant Labor (For Military Valor). In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin "
• Honorary title - “Honorary Soldier of the Trans-Baikal Military District” (1960) ^[4]

Honorary soldier of the Trans-Baikal Military District (1961). The poet V.I. Lebedev-Kumach dedicated the verses to him:

He is a master of sniper science,
Fascist evil thunder,
What a golden hand.
What sharp eyes!

About the combat route, the exploits of S. D. Nomokonov in April 1945, front-line correspondent Yevgeny Vorobyov wrote an article “Sniper Tube”. Later, after the war, the Transbaikal writer Sergei Mikhailovich Zarubin wrote a book with the same name. In 2015, a play was staged in Chita based on the story ^[12] . The sniper rifle No. 24638, along with the book, is now on display at the Museum of the History of the Order of Lenin of the Siberian Military District , where there is a corner dedicated to S. D. Nomokonov. In the homeland of the Hero, competitions in bullet shooting for sniper prizes S. D. Nomokonov are held ^[2] .

In January 2010, S. D. Nomokonov won first place in the competition "Great People of Transbaikalia", organized under the patronage of the Administration of the Transbaikal Territory ^[13] . At the request of the Transbaikal people and on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory, the organizers of the competition initiated the issue of introducing the famous sniper to the title of Hero of the Russian Federation , but the Ministry of Defense did not find it possible to assign him this high rank ^[14] .

The story of Semyon Nomokonov became a collective image for the film “ Sniper 2. Tungus ” ^[15] .

In 2015, a stela was opened in Mogoytuy, Transbaikal Territory ^[16] .

• A. Abramov. The best snipers of the Red Army, 1941 - 1945 (unspecified) . Date of treatment March 19, 2010. Archived on April 20, 2012.
• From the Soviet Information Bureau, 1941-1945: journalism and essays on the war years . - M .: Publishing House of the Press News Agency, 1984.
• Zarubin, S.M. Sniper tube . - Irkutsk: East-Sib. Prince Publishing House, 1980.
• Encyclopedia of Transbaikalia (neopr.) . Date of treatment March 19, 2010. Archived on April 20, 2012.
• Danilov A. Semyon Nomokonov - Honorary Soldier // Victory. - M. , 1975.

• On May 9, the First Channel showed a film about a hero from the Buryat steppes (Neopr.) . Date of treatment May 10, 2012. Archived May 27, 2012.