Ponomarev, Pavel Ivanovich

Pre-war period

Pavel Ivanovich Ponomarev was born in 1903 in the village of Kursaki, Ufa county, Ufa province of the Russian Empire (now the village of Iglinsky district of the Republic of Bashkortostan of the Russian Federation ) in the family of a peasant Ivan Alekseevich Ponomarev. Russian He graduated from six classes of the parish school . Until 1918, he worked in the farm of his father. During the civil war, Ivan Alekseevich, sending his family to the village of Pokrovka ^[1] , volunteered to go to the Red Army . After the end of the civil war, he returned to his native places and, together with his son Pavel, participated in the formation of Soviet power in the region, as well as the organization of the first agricultural commune in the district, which was later transformed into a collective farm named after V.I. Chapaev.

In 1922, P.I. Ponomarev was drafted into the ranks of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army . Pavel Ivanovich served as an artilleryman in the Western Military District . He graduated from the courses of secondary commanders. After returning to Pokrovka after demobilization, Pavel Ivanovich married. He worked on a collective farm. In the early 30s, he and his family moved to the village of Petrushino ^{[2] of the} Kiginsky district of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic . He worked in the Red Fighter artel , which produced charcoal and tar . In 1932, Pavel Ivanovich moved to Zlatoust . At first he got a railroad conductor. In 1934, he, as a conscientious and responsible employee, was transferred to the post of representative of the South Ural Railway Administration for receiving station proceeds. In 1938, Pavel Ivanovich was accepted as a member of the CPSU (b) . From 1939 to 1941, he served as head of the cultural department of the railway workers union of the Zlatoust station and head of the Paris Commune club. In April 1941, P.I. Ponomarev was elected the head of the trade union organization of the Zlatoust branch of the South Ural Railway.

World War II

From the first days of World War II, P.I. Ponomarev was booked as a railwayman, but Pavel Ivanovich, after several appeals to the military enlistment office, managed to be sent to the front. At the end of August 1941, he was called up by the Zlatoust city military registration and enlistment office and sent to Chebarkul , where the formation of the 371st Infantry Division was under way. In battles with the Nazi invaders, political instructor P.I. Ponomarev from December 5, 1941, on the Western Front , served as military commissar for the battery of 45 mm cannons of the 1229th Infantry Regiment. Member of the Battle of Moscow . Since December 5, 1941, the 371st Infantry Division as part of the 30th Army participated in the counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Moscow in the wedge direction, liberating the city of Klin . Since January 1942, P.I. Ponomarev participated in bloody battles near Rzhev on the Kalinin (30th Army) and Western ( 31st Army ) fronts, taking part in all operations of the Red Army in 1942 during the Battle of Rzhev ( Rzhevsko- Vyazem offensive , Kholm-Zhirkov defensive , First and Second Rzhev-Sychev operations). During the fighting, Pavel Ivanovich was always in the battle formations of his battery, and sometimes he himself became an instrument. So, on April 21, 1942, the political instructor Ponomarev in the battle for the village of Gorshkovo in the Rzhevsky district with the fire of guns destroyed two enemy machine guns and one car. On July 24, 1942, while crossing the Volga River, he destroyed 12 German soldiers and one officer from a rifle, and in the battle for the village of Isakovo in the Zutsovsky District, he silenced the enemy's machine gun with fire from a cannon. In the battles near Rzhev, Pavel Ivanovich was twice wounded.

In the autumn of 1942, in connection with the abolition of the institute of military commissars, P.I. Ponomarev received the rank of captain and was appointed to the post of commander of the battery of 76-mm guns of the 1229th Infantry Regiment. In the 1943 campaign, Pavel Ivanovich participated in the Rzhev-Vyazemsky offensive and Smolensk operations of the Western Front. In November 1943, the 371st Infantry Division was transferred to the 33rd Army and fought near Vitebsk , trying to break through the well-fortified and deeply echeloned enemy defense line - the Bear Wall. During the assault on the enemy fortifications, undertaken on November 14, 1943, Captain P.I. Ponomarev led the actions of his battery, being directly in battle formations. His battery quickly suppressed the firing points of the enemy, contributing to the advancement of rifle units. When the enemy went over to the counterattack, Pavel Ivanovich put forward his guns to open positions and with precise fire cut off the infantry from the Ferdinand self-propelled guns . The Germans suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat. Then captain Ponomarev, rising to his full height, raised the infantry to the attack and led her to storm the second line of enemy trenches. On November 15, 1943, the Germans, trying to regain their lost positions, again launched a counterattack with the support of tanks and self-propelled guns. Captain P.I. Ponomaryov, having stood up to the gun himself, knocked out one self-propelled gun. Nevertheless, it was not possible to break through the line of German defense of the division, and it switched to defense.

On April 24, 1944, the Western Front was transformed into the 3rd Belorussian Front , and its troops began preparations for Operation Bagration . Before the start of the Belarusian strategic offensive, the 371st Infantry Division was included in the 5th Army , and Captain P. I. Ponomarev was appointed to the post of chief of artillery of the 1233th Infantry Regiment. The liberation of Belarus 3rd Belorussian Front began the Vitebsk-Orsha operation . On July 23, 1944, after powerful artillery preparation, the 1233th Infantry Regiment broke through the enemy’s defenses in its area near the village of Vysochany and rushed into a breakthrough. Despite the impassable terrain, the regiment’s chief of artillery, Captain Ponomarev, managed to ensure the rapid advance of artillery and during the offensive provided substantial support to the rifle units. On the same day, the regiment’s units reached the Luchese River , and immediately forcing it, they seized the bridgehead on the left bank. When repulsing the enemy’s counterattacks on the captured bridgehead, Captain Ponomarev inspired fighters by personal example and raised their morale. Pavel Ivanovich put forward his guns for direct fire and personally shot the German infantry from the cannon. When the enemy’s resistance was broken, he raised the regiment in the attack and was one of the first to break into the village of Luchesa , destroying 20 German soldiers during the battle.

Developing the offensive in the direction of Bogushevsk - Senno - Lepel, the 5th Army crossed the Berezina River south of Lake Palik on June 30, 1944, and breaking through the enemy’s defenses, went to the area of ​​the city of Vileika , from where it launched an attack on July 5, 1944 during the Vilnius frontal operation . P.I. Ponomarev participated in the breakthrough of the German defense at the Daugavpils - Vilnius - Lida line-up and in street battles for the city of Vilnius. After the liberation of the capital of the Lithuanian SSR, units of the 371st Infantry Division rushed to the Neman . On July 17, 1944, the division reached the river in the area of ​​the settlement of Darsūniškis in the Kaisiadorski district ^{[3] of} Lithuania. Captain P.I. Ponomarev personally volunteered to force the river along with the radio operator and adjust the artillery fire of the regiment from the right bank. With the first assault battalion, Pavel Ivanovich crossed the Neman and personally led the battalion into battle. After capturing and securing the bridgehead, he transmitted by radio the coordinates of the enemy firing points identified during the battle, which were suppressed by artillery. However, the German attacks intensified, and the command decided to transfer artillery to the bridgehead. Six guns of 45 and 76 mm caliber were safely transported through the Neman. Pavel Ivanovich successfully located firepower, turning the position of the battalion into an impregnable fortress. During July 18, paratroopers supported by artillery repelled 7 fierce enemy attacks, supported by Ferdinand tanks and self-propelled guns. Being shell-shocked and wounded in the head, Captain P.I. Ponomarev did not leave the battlefield and continued to direct the battery fire. Several times he himself became a gun, destroying 4 tanks and up to 200 enemy soldiers and officers.

Pavel Ivanovich was not in the hospital for long. In less than a month, he returned to his unit, which fought in the south-eastern regions of Lithuania. He took part in the final phase of the Kaunas operation , during which the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front reached the enemy’s prepared defense line at the Raseiniai - Kibartai - Suvalki line . On August 29, 1944, by decision of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, they went over to the defense. The 371st Infantry Division took up positions southwest of the city of Sakiai . In late October 1944, the German command, trying to push the Red Army off the borders of East Prussia , launched a series of counterattacks. When repelling one of these counterattacks on October 27, 1944, P.I. Ponomarev was mortally wounded. They tried to take Pavel Ivanovich to a hospital in the town of Grishkabudis , but he died on the way. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union, Captain Ponomarev Pavel Ivanovich, was awarded by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 24, 1945 for distinction when crossing the Neman River. He was buried by P.I. Ponomarev in the town of Grishkabudis, Marijampolsk County, Republic of Lithuania .

• Medal "Golden Star" (03.24.1945, posthumous);
• Order of Lenin (03.24.1945, posthumously);
• Order of the Red Banner (08.21.1944);
• Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (12/25/1942);
• Order of the Red Star (12.12.1943).

A street in the city of Chelyabinsk is named after the Hero of the Soviet Union P.I. Ponomaryov.

• Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1988. - T. 2 / Love - Yashchuk /. - 863 s. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-203-00536-2 .
• Kislitsyn A. S. Fanned by glory. - Chelyabinsk, 1965.
• The Feats of Their Immortals: A Handbook of Heroes of the Soviet Union and Full Knights of the Order of Glory from the Republic of Bashkortostan / comp. R.A. Valishin, I.G. Karimov, A.U. Kunakbaev, etc. - Ufa: Kitap, 2000 .-- 398 p.
• Ushakov A.P. In the name of the Motherland. Stories about Chelyabinsk - Heroes and twice Heroes of the Soviet Union . - Chelyabinsk: South Ural Book Publishing House, 1985.

• Public electronic document bank “The Feat of the People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” (neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived March 13, 2012.

Submission to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the decree of the USSR PVS on conferring the title (neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived December 13, 2012.

Order of the Red Banner (award sheet and award order) (neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived December 13, 2012.

Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (award sheet and award order) (neopr.) .

Order of the Red Star (award sheet and award order) (neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived December 13, 2012.

• The generalized database “Memorial” (neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived May 10, 2012.

TsAMO, f. 33, op. 11458, d. 630 (neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived December 13, 2012.

TsAMO, f. 33, op. 11458, d.443 (neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived December 13, 2012.

• Ponomarev, Pavel Ivanovich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".
• Official site of Iglinsky district of the Republic of Bashkortostan (neopr.) (Unavailable link) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived December 13, 2012.
• Bashkir Republican Museum of Military Glory (Neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived December 13, 2012.
• Ponomarev Pavel Ivanovich. Zlatoust Encyclopedia (Neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived December 13, 2012.
• Ponomarev Pavel Ivanovich on www.az-libr.ru (neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived December 13, 2012.
• Ponomarev Pavel Ivanovich on the official website of the city of Zlatoust (neopr.) . Date of treatment October 14, 2012. Archived December 13, 2012.