Mikhail Vasilievich Mezhov ( July 17, 1902 , the village of Nikulino, Elovskaya Volost, Krasnoyarsk Uyezd, Yenisei Province, Russian Empire [1] - July 17, 1942 near the village of Gridino, Starorussky District, Novgorod District, Leningrad Region, RSFSR, USSR (now in the Parthinsky District , Novgorod region , Russia ) - participant of the Great Patriotic War , shooter of the 349th rifle Kazan regiment of the 26th rifle Zlatoust twice-red banner division of the 27th army of the North-Western Front , a Red Army man. He covered the loophole of the machine gun with his body.
| Mikhail Vasilievich Mezhov | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date of Birth | ||
| Place of Birth | ||
| Date of death | ||
| A place of death | Gridino village , Starorussky district , Novgorod district , Leningrad region , RSFSR , USSR | |
| Affiliation |  the USSR | |
| Type of army | infantry | |
| Rank |  | |
| Part | 26th Infantry Division 349th Infantry Regiment | |
| Commanded | shooter | |
| Battles / wars | The Great Patriotic War | |
| Awards and prizes |
| |
Biography
He was born in 1902 in the village of Nikulino (now Mezhovo) near Krasnoyarsk in the family of a wealthy peasant Vasily Filippovich and Aksinyya Arsentyevna Mezhov. In the early 1930s , during the period of collectivization , the Mezhov family was recognized as kulak (for example, the family had two mills [2] ) and, after dispossessing , was sent north along the Yenisei to the village of Nikulino (now a village in the Yenisei district ), having received the status special settlers . By that time, Mikhail Mezhov was already married, had two children (later than four). He worked on the preparation of firewood for steamers, burned lime, went to gold mining in the mines in the North Yenisei region. By the beginning of the war, he worked in the Yartsevo timber industry enterprise
In the spring of 1942, Yartsevsky RVK was drafted into the Red Army , from April 1942 he participated in battles in the area of Staraya Russa , where the 26th Infantry Division waged heavy battles for the " Ramushev corridor "
The second and last letter of Mikhail Mezhov from the front has survived, in which he wrote to his wife so that she would not wait for him and that he would soon die heroically. [2]
July 17, 1942, on the day of the fortieth anniversary of the Red Army soldier Mezhov, the Soviet units once again stormed the corridor along which the enemy troops were supplied in the Demyansk boiler. The company, which included the shooter Mezhov, according to some information, was advancing in the area of the Figurnaya grove near the village of Borisovo. [3] , twice attacked and twice lay under fire from a bunker machine gun on the left flank of the attackers. Then Mikhail Mezhov secretly crept up to the bunker, and from an acute angle threw a grenade into the embrasure. The machine gun was silent, but when the company again went on the attack, and had already passed half the open space, it opened fire again. Mikhail Mezhov, seeing that fire from a machine gun can destroy the whole company, covered the embrasure with his body.
The front-line newspaper "For Homeland" for July 1942 described the feat of the Red Army in this way:
“The company of political instructor Klusov twice went on the attack, and both times on the left flank of the enemy’s defense a bunker came to life. The front embrasure of this bunker planted machine-gun fire, pressing the advancing company to the ground. Both attacks were thwarted. The soldiers lay down. But it was impossible to remain in the open place - the Germans could interrupt the company with multi-layered fire of artillery, mortars and machine guns. A few minutes later a fighter separated from the group of shooters and, cunningly clinging to the ground, crawled forward. He moved to the embrasure, trying to get into an unaffected space.
- To the left, to the left of Mezhov! - shouted after him, and the soldier disappeared into the thick grass.Twenty minutes later, Mezhov almost crawled close to the bunker. The machine gun barked again, sending lines to where Klusov's company lay. Mezhov quickly pushed the safety pin of the grenade and threw it into the embrasure. After the explosion, there was dead silence ... Mezhov turned back and saw how the soldiers of his company were rising ... The company was already halfway through when the embrasure again burst into long machine-gun bursts. It was so unexpected that Mezhov was confused for a second. There was no longer a grenade, it was reckless to shoot from a rifle - the soldier lay at an angle to the embrasure. But it was impossible to procrastinate. Mezhov once again turned to his comrades, and saw the running chains, thinning from machine-gun bursts ... "
He was buried near the village of Gridino, later reburied in Ramushevo .
By order of the troops of the North-Western Front No. 1117 of September 3, 1942, he was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin .
Notes
- ↑ Now - Mezhovo in the Bolshemurtinsky district , Krasnoyarsk Territory , Russia .
- ↑ 1 2 I come to you with a bow . Date of treatment May 29, 2013. Archived June 6, 2013.
- ↑ Personal site - Sketch of V. Kislinsky. There is nothing more expensive, continued (part 7) . Date of treatment May 29, 2013. Archived June 6, 2013.