Minenkov, Vasily Semenovich

Born in 1921 in the village of Suslovichi, now in the Krasninsky district of the Smolensk region . Russian. After graduating from high school, he went to his older brother in Leningrad . He worked at a factory there.

Since 1940 in the Navy.

Member of the Great Patriotic War since 1941. In the Marine Corps, Vasily Minenkov fought near Novorossiysk and defended Tuapse . He was twice wounded.

In the second half of March 1944, the troops of the 28th Army began fighting to liberate the city of Nikolaev . To facilitate the frontal strike of the advancing, it was decided to land an assault in the port of Nikolaev . A group of paratroopers under the command of senior lieutenant Konstantin Olshansky was allocated from the 384th separate battalion of the marine corps. It included 55 sailors, 2 signalmen from the army headquarters and 10 sappers. The conductor went to the local fisherman Andreev . One of the paratroopers was the senior sailor Minenkov.

For two days, the detachment fought in bloody battles, repelled 18 fierce enemy attacks, destroying up to 700 enemy soldiers and officers. During the last attack, the Nazis used flamethrowers and poisonous substances. But nothing could break the resistance of the paratroopers, force them to lay down their arms. They performed the combat mission with honor.

On March 28, 1944, Soviet troops liberated Nikolaev. When the attackers broke into the port, they got a picture of the battle that took place here: burnt buildings destroyed by shells, more than 700 corpses of fascist soldiers and officers were lying around, the fire was stinking. From the ruins of the port office there were 6 surviving paratroopers barely holding on their feet, another 2 were sent to the hospital. In the ruins of the office found four more living paratroopers who could not rise: they were dying. All officers, all foremen, sergeants and many Red Navy heroically fell. Among them, and V. S. Minenkov.

He was buried in a mass grave in the city of Nikolaev in the square of 68 paratroopers.

The news of their feat spread throughout the army, throughout the country. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief ordered all the participants in the landing to submit to the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union .

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 20, 1945, for the successful operation of the landing squad to capture and hold a bridgehead behind enemy lines, which facilitated the liberation of the city of Nikolaev by Soviet troops, the senior sailor Vasily Minenkov was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin.

In the city of Nikolaev, the National Museum of the Military Glory of the Marines-paratroopers was opened, the street was named after them. A monument was erected in the square named after 68 paratroopers. In the village of Oktyabrsky on the banks of the Bug estuary , from where the paratroopers left for the mission, a memorial granite block with a commemorative inscription was erected.

• Minenkov, Vasily Semenovich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".
• 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 .
• Medvedev N. Ya. We were 68 / Literary record of Ivan Zhigalov. - Edition revised and supplemented. - M .: DOSAAF, 1966 .-- 50,000 copies.
• Bozhatkin M. I. Landing takes the battle. - Nikolaev: Possibilities of Cimmeria, 1998. - 379 p. - LBC ST 63.3 (4UKR-4MIK) .
• Marine prowess / compiled by Yu. I. Chernov, A. A. Voronin. - M .: Military Publishing , 1982. - 206 p. - 65,000 copies. - BBK 359.75 (09) + 3KSM .