Zabelkin, Nikolai Ivanovich

The early years

Nikolai Ivanovich Zabelkin was born on April 21 ^[2] 1921 in the village of Vostochnoye in the Akmola province of the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ^[3] (now the village of Egindyagash ^{[4] of the} Ayyrtau District of the North Kazakhstan Region of the Republic of Kazakhstan ) in a working-class family. Russian In childhood, he moved with his parents to the village of Rosa in the Etkul region ^[5] . He graduated from a seven-year school. Then he entered the Chelyabinsk Power Engineering College ^[6] , from the fourth year of which in June 1941 the Chelyabinsk city military registration and enlistment office was called up to the ranks of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army .

Participation in the Great Patriotic War

In battles with the Nazi invaders, the Red Army soldier N.I. Zabelkin from July 1941 on the Central Front as part of the 15th separate mortar battery formed in Chelyabinsk , operating under the command of the commander of the 63rd Rifle Corps of the 21st Army . He was baptized in defensive battles on the Dnieper River north of the city of Zhlobin . Together with his part he was surrounded, from which he managed to get out in August 1941. After checking, Nikolai Ivanovich was sent to the Moscow Artillery and Mortar School, which at the end of 1941 was evacuated to Miass . At the end of the school, junior lieutenant N.I. Zabelkin was sent to the 58th Guards Mortar Regiment of the 63rd Army in the fall of 1942. In its composition, Nikolai Ivanovich fought on the Stalingrad (from 30.09.1942 Don ) and South-Western fronts during the Battle of Stalingrad . Before the counterattack of the Soviet troops near the Stalingrad Guard, the second lieutenant Zabelkin was transferred to divisional reconnaissance and during the Uranus operation , being with the radio operator in the advanced echelons of the 1st ( 3rd December 5th, 1942) guards army adjusted the fire of his Katyushas " . In the winter of 1943, Nikolai Ivanovich participated in the Voroshilovgrad operation and defensive battles at the Seversky Donets , during which he was wounded and ended up in the hospital.

N.I. Zabelkin returned to the front in April 1943 already with the rank of lieutenant guard and was appointed to the post of chief of intelligence of the division of his 58th guards mortar regiment. Particularly distinguished during the first Donbass , and then the Lower Dnieper operations. In August 1943, Soviet troops fought in bloody battles for the expansion of the bridgehead on the western bank of the Seversky Donets River. One of the key links of the enemy’s defense in this direction was the village of Golaya Dolina . According to the recollections of Major General G. S. Zdanovich ^[7] , the commander of the 203rd Infantry Division , the Germans sometimes used the following tactics: with a strong artillery attack, they went to the second line of defense, and when our units approached the village, returned to the front line and opened heavy fire. On August 16, 1943, Lieutenant Zabelkin was in the first line of the Red Army units attacking the village. When a convoy of cars with German soldiers drove into the village, he called the Katyush fire on himself. The enemy suffered significant damage, and on August 30, 1943, Naked Valley was released ^[8] .

The next feat of his guard, Lieutenant Zabelkin committed in the Battle of the Dnieper . His regiment was to support fire infantry units of the 46th army on the Aul bridgehead . Being in the battle formations of the company, Zabelkin clearly informed the headquarters about the movements of the enemy, causing fire when repulsing enemy counterattacks. On October 23, 1943, Lieutenant Zabelkin with the radio operator entered the rear of the German troops and adjusted the fire of the guards mortars when repelling three enemy counterattacks, causing once a fire on himself. During the day, 5 vehicles with German infantry and about 60 machine gunners were destroyed ^[8] .

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 3, 1944 for exemplary performance of command missions at the front of the battle against the German invaders and the courage and heroism of the guard shown to Lieutenant Zabelkin, Nikolai Ivanovich, was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Golden Star medal .

Fighting on the 3rd Ukrainian Front , N.I. Zabelkin participated in the liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine and the southern regions of Moldova ( Bereznegovato-Snigirevskaya and Odessa operations), Romania ( Iasi-Chisinau operation ), Bulgaria ( Bulgarian operation ) and Yugoslavia ( Belgrade operation ) . By the beginning of 1945, Nikolai Ivanovich received the rank of senior lieutenant guard and was appointed commander of the Katyush battery. During the Budapest operation, its battery provided fire support to the rifle units of the 46th Army during the crossing of the Danube . The last operation of World War II, in which N.I. Zabelkin took part, was the Balaton operation . In March 1945, the 58th Guards Mortar Brigade was thrown to reflect the breakthrough of German and Hungarian troops in the area of ​​the village of Szymontorny . On March 8, 1945, with a swift march, Zabelkin’s battery entered the defense zone of the 26th Army’s rifle units and, with four direct salvo volleys, helped repel the enemy counterattack, destroying 1 tank, 5 armored personnel carriers and before the infantry platoon. On March 14, N. I. Zabelkin again fled the enemy with five salvos of Guards rocket mortars, destroying three enemy armored cars. A few days later, Nikolai Ivanovich was seriously injured. He met Victory Day in a hospital bed.

After the war

After discharge from the guard medical institution, Senior Lieutenant N.I. Zabelkin was transferred to the reserve. Nikolai Ivanovich returned to the Chelyabinsk region . For some time he was deputy chief of mine No. 27 in Korkino . After graduating from the Moscow Institute of International Relations in 1951, he worked at the Sovinformburo , and then at the Novosti Press Agency . In 1958, N.I. Zabelkin was admitted to the USSR Union of Journalists . From 1975 to 1991, Nikolai Ivanovich headed the APN bureau in the Hungarian People's Republic . The author of the book "They Fought for Their Homeland" in Hungarian. In 1991, N.I. Zabelkin retired. He lived in the city of Moscow , actively participated in the veteran movement. August 18, 2006 Nikolai Ivanovich died. He was buried at the Perepechinsky cemetery of the capital.

• Medal "Golden Star" (06/03/1944);
• Order of Lenin (06/03/1944);
• Order of the Patriotic War of 1 degree - twice (04/05/1945; 04/06/1985).
• Medals, including:

Medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" ;

medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."

Awards of the Hungarian People's Republic:

• Order of Peace and Friendship.

• Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1987.- T. 1 / Abaev - Lyubichev /. - 911 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN comp., Reg. RCP No. 87-95382.
• Heroes of the Soviet Union - Kazakhstanis: in 2 volumes / state .: P. S. Belan, N. P. Kalita. - Alma-Ata: Kazakhstan, 1968. - T. 1. - S. 273-274. - 475 p.
• Zabelkin Nikolai Ivanovich // Intelligence and counterintelligence in persons. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Russian special services / author-comp. A. Dienko. - M: Russian World, 2002 .-- 608 p.

• Public electronic document bank “The Feat of the People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” (neopr.) . Archived March 13, 2012.

Hero of the Soviet Union (Neopr.) . Archived on May 21, 2013.

42910791 Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (1945) (neopr.) . Archived on May 21, 2013.

1512075853 Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (1985) (neopr.) . Archived on May 21, 2013.

Zabelkin, Nikolai Ivanovich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".

• Zabelkin Nikolay Ivanovich on www.az-libr.ru (neopr.) . Archived December 15, 2012.
• Biographies of Heroes and writers of the USSR (Neopr.) . Archived on May 21, 2013.
• N.I. Zabelkin on the portal of the Chelyabinsk region (Neopr.) . Archived on May 21, 2013.