Voinkov, Alexander Mikhailovich

Early years

Alexander Voinkov was born on March 3, 1921 in the village of Nizhnyaya Uyatka of the Kurgan district of the Chelyabinsk province (now within the city ​​of Kurgan , Kurgan region ), in a peasant family. Father before and after the revolution was engaged in agriculture.

In 1929 he entered school, graduated from seven classes. From 1936 to 1939 he studied at the Kurgan Railway College , a specialty on duty at the station.

After graduating from college, on September 7, 1939 he was drafted (place of conscription: Kurgan RVK, Chelyabinsk Region, Kurgan District) to the ranks of the Red Army . From 1939 to 1941 he studied at the Tyumen Infantry School , upon graduation he was awarded the military rank of “ lieutenant ”. He was sent for further service in the city of Penza , in the 90th spare rifle regiment to the position of commander of a rifle company.

During the Great Patriotic War

He was baptized on December 5, 1941 near Moscow as part of the 10th Army ski battalion as company commander. By the beginning of December 1941, the army, which was in the reserve of the Supreme Command, was concentrated south-west of Ryazan and on December 1 it was included in the Western Front . During the Moscow offensive operation (December 5, 1941 - April 20, 1942) on December 6, the army launched a counterattack from the area of ​​concentration. By the next morning, her troops liberated the cities of Serebryanye Prudy and Mikhailov . Subsequently, during the Tula offensive operation (December 6-16, 1941), army forces in collaboration with the troops of the 50th Army , 1st Guards Cavalry Corps of the Western and 3rd Army of the South-Western Fronts defeated the 2nd enemy tank army east and southeast of Tula . By the beginning of January 1942, army troops fought to a depth of 250 km, liberated Stalinogorsk ( Novomoskovsk ) (December 11), Epifan and a number of other settlements. Continuing the offensive, the army troops reached the Kirov - Lyudinovo - Zhizdra line by January 10, 1942, where, until the end of the month, the enemy counterattacked. February 23, 1942 Alexander Mikhailovich was seriously injured and sent for treatment in Ryazan . After being treated at the hospital, he was sent to the Western Front (World War II) in the 322nd Infantry Division of the 16th Army, Lieutenant General I. Baghramyan. The 322nd Infantry Division of the 16th Army in early August 1942 had the task of defending the strip along the front to 14 km and a depth of 8 km on the eastern bank of the river. Reseta (southeast of the station Duminichi, Kaluga region). For participating in these battles, Lieutenant Voinkov was awarded the first military award - the Order of the Red Banner .

He managed the company well, repelled up to six enemy attacks, where he was wounded, and without leaving the battlefield, led the company four times in a counterattack and destroyed up to 300 Germans. After the second wound, he was out of order and is being cured.

- number of entries in the database: 10062268

After being cured in the hospital, Alexander Mikhailovich is sent to Sverdlovsk , where from October 20 to December 24, 1942 he is a student of the Shot courses . According to the results of the training, the commission concluded: “Prepared for the post of commander of a machine gun battalion.”

Since 1943, a member of the CPSU (b) .

Since February 1943 - pom. Head of the Human Resources Department of the Southwest Front . It would seem a “warm place”, but again he asks for trenches. As follows from the documents, “at personal request” he was sent to the front line, to the 101st Guards Rifle Regiment of the 35th Guards Red Banner Rifle Division, to the post of deputy regiment commander for combatant units. The division was formed in August 1942 in the Moscow Region on the basis of the 8th airborne corps , as the 35th Guards Rifle Division . Participated in the Battle of Stalingrad , the offensive in the Donbass direction (January - February 1943), in the Kharkov defensive operation, the liberation of the Left-Bank and Right-Bank Ukraine, Lublin-Brest , Warsaw-Poznan and Berlin offensive operations . For military merits she was awarded the honorary name "Lozovskaya" (September 1943), was awarded the orders of the Red Banner, Suvorov 2nd degree, Bohdan Khmelnitsky 2nd degree; thousands of its soldiers were awarded orders and medals, 21 were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. At that time, for more than a month, units of the division were engaged in active defensive battles, constraining the enemy’s forces in the Kharkov direction, depriving him of the ability to transfer his units to the Kursk region. Since September 1943, Voinkov Alexander Mikhailovich was appointed commander of the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment . From the memoirs of a Hero of the Soviet Union, a scout of the 100th Guards. JV Eroshkin Valentin Kirillovich : “What a man that was, Voinkov! Beautiful - well, just an eagle! He was twenty-two at that time, and he was already considered a true master of intelligence. They talked about some extraordinary luck of the captain (he soon became a major), but Eroshkin, who had to act with Voinkov more than once, knew the secret of this luck: the detachment commander was courageous, clever, able to outwit the enemy. ”In September 1943, the guard Captain Voinkov A.M. awarded the Order of the Red Star .

09/15/1943 the enemy, concentrating his forces on the western outskirts of Lozovaya, put up stubborn fire resistance, halting the further advance of our units. Comrade Voinkov, thanks to the skillful command of the regiment and the exceptional courage shown at the same time, he personally led his combat units to the attack. 09/26/1943 temporarily commanding the 101st Guards Joint Venture in a timely manner, without loss, ensured the crossing of the Dnieper River .

- number of entries in the database: 17768637

From the award sheet it can be seen that on September 26, 1943, Voinkov A.M. temporarily commanded the 101st Guards Rifle Regiment. In general, the commanders during the most difficult battles in the area of Lozovaya were literally “shuffled like a deck of cards” - they simply weren’t enough. The enemy tried at all costs to decapitate the advancing units of our army, to bring down an attacking impulse. The German command attached exceptional importance to this large railway junction, which was located on the highway connecting two large industrial regions - Donbass and Kharkov . The city and the Lozovaya railway station was the site of the cantonment of many enemy military institutions. A railway station connected the front and rear of the German army. The military affairs of the division also did not go unnoticed, and on September 23, 1943, the order ^{[1] of the} Supreme Commander-in-Chief Joseph Stalin was issued to add the honorary name “Lozovskaya” to the name “35th Guards Red Banner Rifle Division ” . In the battles for the liberation of Ukraine Guard Major Voinkov A.M. was awarded the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 2nd degree

In the battles from the Seversky Donets River to the Dnieper River , for mastering the bridgehead on the right bank of the Dnieper and further advance to the line, Zeleniy Gai , Vishnevy, Comrade Voinkov skillfully organized the battle and led it from beginning to end. In the battles for mastery, Sadovy and Kamenny organized the battle and led the regiment into the attack, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. In the battles for the capture of Vishnevy 10/26/1943, Comrade Voinkov was greatly shell-shocked, but, despite this, did not leave the battlefield and continued to command the regiment.

- number of entries in the database: 20213385

Under his leadership, the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment participated in the Nikopol-Krivorozh and Bereznegovato-Snigirev offensive operations, in the liberation of Odessa , in the battles on the Dniester bridgehead, also participated in battles on Polish soil. He passed the test at the Mangushevsky bridgehead ^[2] and in the Wisla-Oder operation . In one of TsAMO’s documents, such an entry was found: “VOINKOV Alexander Mikhailovich born in 1921 ... Awarded the orders:“ Red Banner ”, .......... for crossing the river. Wisla, exceptional perseverance and heroism - shown in the battles for the seizure of the bridgehead - VOINKOV presented ^[3] to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union . " The document was signed by the commander of the 8th Guards Army Guards. Colonel General V. Chuikov and a member of the Military Council of the Army Guards. Major General A. Pronin. This view has remained unrealized. The 100th Guards Rifle Regiment under the command of A. Voinkov for the liberation of Gneven ( Gniezno ) (liberated on January 22, 1945 by troops of the 1st Baltic Fleet during the Warsaw-Poznan operation ) received the name "Gnezninsky" ^{[4] [5]} From archival documents and books of Colonel Justice Afanasyev NI, general Varennikova V.I. , the fact is obvious that Alexander Mikhailovich had to solve difficult tasks ... After all, it is one thing to set tasks, and another to fulfill them. And as you can see from the biography, the 24-year-old guard, Lieutenant Colonel Voinkov, fought against the experienced, professionally trained Wehrmacht generals, who conducted more than one military company, and were already able to crush the whole of Europe under themselves. Repeated presentation of A. Voinkov On February 4, 1945, Commander Smolin was written for the high Hero of the Soviet Union for successfully crossing the Warta River and breaking through the enemy’s defense on the German state border in the Liebuch region. But in this case, Alexander Mikhailovich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner . Ahead were the battles for the Oder and the Berlin operation ^[6] .

During the service of the guard, Lt. Col. Voinkov Alexander Mikhailovich participated in forcing 8 rivers from the Seversky Donets, breaking through the enemy’s defense on the West Bank of the Vistula, before offensive battles for the Oder, forcing and expanding the bridgehead on the left bank of the Oder, and taking control of the storming of the fortress on the island east of the suburb of Kitz . Under his direct leadership, assault groups were created and prepared for the operation, ferry crossings and interaction of all arms of the army were organized. Subsequently, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Patriotic War of 1 degree . He did not have time to get the latter - he was transferred to the family for storage only in January 2008 .

From the memoirs of the Hero of the Soviet Union , Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces - Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR Valentin Ivanovich Varennikov :

“With such naive thoughts, I continued the war in the name of the fact that there would never again be wars on earth. And the next day we were told: a German sniper shot the head of our division commander of the 100th Guards Rifle Regiment of the Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Mikhailovich Voinkov, with a shot in the head. It was a terrible loss. I just could not believe that he died. After all, he had a chance to fight with him in the 43rd, the entire 44th and part of the 45th years. Such a hard way was behind! Such fierce battles and wild "bindings" in which we fell. But everyone passed and suffered, and now, when only a few days are left before the Victory, - suddenly ... death. And then, and now I am sure that only the absence of a reliable friend next to him, to whom he listened, led him to death.

No, next to him was a reliable military friend - Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Korolev, his adjutant. More than once, he literally saved his commander. But Alexander Mikhailovich often did not listen to him, and then I already had to connect. We, so to speak, double-thrust influenced the commander and often dissuaded him from unnecessary rash steps that could lead to disaster. He was especially excited during the counterattacks of the enemy, or when we could not advance a meter, but we had to advance. Of course, each time, analyzing the situation, we, although we spent time on it, still found the reason and the key to solving the problem. And he was always grateful to us. We have already established “our” method of organizing and conducting combat, “our” method of mutual communication and relationships. This created, so to speak, its own microclimate, our friendly front-line family, where everyone understood each other at a glance. ”

- Varennikov V.I.

Last fight

Guard Lieutenant Colonel Voinkov Alexander Mikhailovich died on the outskirts of Berlin ( Waldziversdorf , Gau Mark Brandenburg , now the commune of Waldziversdorf is part of the Office of Merkisch-Schweiz ( German Amt Märkische Schweiz ) in the Merkisch-Oderland district of Germany's Brandenburg land). Battle report number 118 at 15:00 from 04/21/1945. (unspecified) . Archived May 24, 2013.

At 19:00 on April 20, 1945, the commander of the guard regiment, Lt. Col. VOINKOV, near the mill, s. Walt Siepersdorf . In honor of the deceased beloved by all fighters and officers, the regiment commander at 19:30 was given, with all types of weapons, a salute in the area of ​​the Walt Siefersdorf courtyard, and stormed it.

- Battle report number 118 at 15:00 on 04/21/1945

Burial place

In accordance with the Nominal List of Irrevocable Losses ^{[7] of the} officers of the 35th Guards Rifle Division of the Guard, Lieutenant Colonel A. Voinkov was originally buried in n.p. Zapzig (Säpzig) Germany. Zapzig is now located on the territory of the Republic of Poland and is called абabice ( Polish Żabice (województwo lubuskie) ), is part of the commune of Gužycy , Słubicky County , Lubusz Voivodeship . Currently in n.p. Zhabice has no military graves. (unavailable link) Documented archival data on the reburial of the ashes of Lieutenant Colonel Voinkov AM the Polish side cannot imagine. Guards./p-to Voinkov A.M. resting on the War Memorial in Gorzow Wielkopolski, Valczak St., grave No. 244 https://www.obd-memorial.ru/html/info.htm?id=86111079 Currently, the actual location of the ashes of the Guard Lieutenant Colonel Voinkov A.M. . is unknown. ^[8] .

• Two Orders of the Red Banner ^{[9] [10]} , January 1, 1942, February 17, 1945
• Order of the Red Star ^[11] , October 24, 1943
• Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky II degree ^[12] , February 22, 1944
• Order of the Patriotic War I degree ^[13] , May 7, 1945. (The Order was awarded to the grandson of A.M. Voinkov in 2008). ^[fourteen]

• There is the following entry on the pylon of the Memorial to the Fallen Soviet Soldiers in Tiergarten : “Hero of the Soviet Union Guards. Colonel A. Voinov, 1921‑20.04.45. "

• Afanasyev N.I. From the Volga to the Spree: Battle Path of the 35th Guards Rifle Lozov Red Banner Division. M., Military Publishing, 1982. 254 pp.
• Varennikov V.I. Victory Parade. M., Vagrius, 2005.554 p.
• Pshimanovsky Janusz Studzyanki M., Military Publishing House, 1969.338 p.
• Wolf A. Ya. Go through the fire. Documentary stories about military intelligence. Saratov Volga. Prince Publishing House, 1983. 296 pp.
• Varennikov Valentin Ivanovich / The Unique / Book 1 / Part 2 / Chapter 5
• News

• Varennikov V.I.
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• Wolf A. Ya.
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• Combat logs