Alexander Vasilievich Raikunov (1918-1997) - the Soviet military. Member of the Great Patriotic War . Hero of the Soviet Union (1943). Captain 3rd rank . Honorary resident of the city of Novorossiysk (1980).
Alexander Vasilievich Raikunov | ||||||||||
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Date of Birth | November 14, 1918 | |||||||||
Place of Birth | with. Kievka , Novouzensky district , Samara province , RSFSR | |||||||||
Date of death | September 15, 1997 (78 years) | |||||||||
Place of death | Volgograd , Russian Federation | |||||||||
Affiliation | the USSR | |||||||||
Type of army | Soviet Navy (1938-1941 and 1945-1947) Marines (1941–1944) | |||||||||
Years of service | 1938-1947 | |||||||||
Rank | captain of the 3rd rank | |||||||||
Part | during the Great Patriotic War: | |||||||||
Battles / Wars | The Great Patriotic War | |||||||||
Awards and prizes |
Content
Biography
Alexander Vasilievich Raikunov was born on November 14, 1918 in the village of Kievka, Novouzensky district, Samara province of the RSFSR (now the village of Novouzensky district, Saratov region of the Russian Federation ) in the family of an employee. Russian . He graduated from primary school in his native village, completed his seven-year education in Stalingrad [1] , where the Raikunov family moved in 1930. In 1933-1934, he studied at the school factory apprenticeship number 1 [2] . Then he worked as a turner at the Stalingrad Tractor Plant . Alexander Vasilievich combined his work with studies at the evening department of the Stalingrad Tractor Institute . However, he managed to actively engage in sports. Purposefully preparing for service in the army, Alexander Vasilyevich, while still studying at the trade school, passed the GTO standards for the 2nd stage, then played basketball at a high level. When the time came for conscription, Raikunov himself asked to be sent to the fleet, where the service life at the time was three years [3] .
A.V. Raikunov was called up by the Stalingrad city military registration and enlistment office in 1938 to the ranks of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet . Until 1940, Alexander Vasilyevich served as a miner and commander of the Bon party in Batumi . Then the foreman of the 2nd article of A. V. Raikunov was transferred to Sevastopol , where he took command of the patrol boat . During his service on the Black Sea Fleet, Alexander Vasilyevich seriously became interested in football . His sporting achievements were noticed by the command, and soon he began to speak for the team of the House of the Navy (FEMF). Perhaps the finest hour of Raikunov-football player was his performance in the composition of the coastal units of the Black Sea Fleet. In the match against the team of the surface forces of the Black Sea Fleet, held in December 1943 in Gelendzhik , the Raikunov team won with a score of 4: 1, and Alexander Vasilyevich made a hat-trick in this match [4] . By this time, he already had three severe wounds and a severe concussion .
In battles with the Nazi invaders, the foreman of the 2nd article of A.V. Raikunov from June 24, 1941. On this day, the patrol boat commanded by Alexander Vasilyevich was on the maritime convoy accompanying the tanker Sovneft. In the Tendrovsky Bay, Soviet ships were attacked by enemy bombers. As a result of a direct hit by an aerial bomb, Raikunov's boat exploded and sank six miles from the coast. Alexander Vasilyevich was wounded and contused, but managed to swim to the shore. While he was undergoing treatment at the Odessa hospital, German and Romanian troops came close to the city. A. Century Raikunova after treatment sent to the Marines . Until October 1941, Sergeant Major of the 2nd Article A.V. Raikunov participated in the defense of Odessa , and after evacuating the city’s garrison, he again found himself in Batumi, where he served for a short time as part of the Batumi fortified area. In November 1941, he was assigned to the 83rd separate naval rifle brigade as part of a volunteer sailors detachment, where he was appointed assistant to the commander of a reconnaissance platoon of the 2nd Infantry Battalion. Before the start of the Kerch-Feodosiya landing operation, Alexander Vasilyevich was awarded the title of foreman of the 1st article.
On December 17, 1941, the fascist German troops launched the second assault on Sevastopol. To alleviate the situation of the city defenders, the command of the Transcaucasian Front developed a plan for the landing operation, according to which units of the 44th and 51st armies were to land on the Kerch Peninsula and, having defeated the Kerch grouping of the enemy, assist the besieged Sevastopol. On the night of December 25-26, 1941, the landing party, which included the first sergeant of the 1st article A.I. Raikunov, landed on the northern coast of the Crimea near the village of Mama Russkaya . Having quickly broken the resistance of the enemy, the paratroopers swiftly advanced along the northern coast of the Crimea to Akmonai positions. They met the organized resistance of the Germans only to the west of Ak-Monai . A.I. Raikunov, who replaced the retired platoon commander, stormed the village of Tulumchak and, entrenched with his fighters at a height of 28.2, repelled several enemy counterattacks. On December 31, in the battle for the village of Vladislavovka, Alexander Vasilyevich was seriously wounded and taken to the Taman Peninsula .
After healing, A. I. Raikunov was promoted to lieutenant and returned to his unit as commander of a walking reconnaissance platoon of the 2nd infantry battalion, but he was soon sent to advanced training courses for commanders . Upon their completion in August 1942, he was assigned to the 137th Separate Regiment of the Marine Corps as commander of a company of machine gunners. He participated in the defense of Novorossiysk in the area of cement plants, then fought in the area of the Markotkh ridge . The Raikunov Company distinguished itself in positional battles near the Sugar Loaf Mountain. On the night of November 7-8, 1942, Alexander Vasilyevich with his fighters went behind enemy lines and with a sudden night attack destroyed enemy firing points and up to two enemy infantry companies. The decisive actions of the Raikunov company allowed the regimental units to take a tactically important height of 277.0.
In November 1942, the Soviet command began to develop a plan for a large-scale offensive in the North Caucasus , which in particular provided for the conduct of a large landing operation, later known as the South Ozeroi operation . On the eve of the operation, Senior Lieutenant A.V. Raikunov was temporarily transferred to a special forces detachment under the command of Major Ts. L. Kunikov as commander of one of the auxiliary landing groups. On the night of 3 to 4 February, an auxiliary assault force of Kunikov landed near the village of Stanichka [6] , but the landing craft, on which Alexander Vasilyevich was with his fighters, did not reach the coast. As a result of a direct hit by an enemy shell, a fire began on the boat, and the paratroopers had to jump into the icy water. A few meters from the shore, Raikunov lost consciousness, but one of his comrades carried him to the shore. Alexander Vasilyevich came to himself already in the hospital in Gelendzhik. After returning to service, A. V. Raikunov continued to serve in the special purpose detachment of the Novorossiysk naval base , which in August 1943 was turned to the formation of the 393rd separate Kunikov Marine Corps Battalion . Alexander V. particularly distinguished himself in battles for the city of Novorossiysk during the Novorossiysk landing operation .
On the night of September 9-10, 1943, a reinforced company of Lieutenant A.V. Raikunov, numbering up to 200, one of the first fighters under enemy fire, landed on three quays of the Forest Pier of the Novorossiysk port . The pier was mined, and several people were blown up by mines, causing confusion among the marines. There was no time for mine clearance, and Alexander Vasilyevich was the first to rush forward, dragging the fighters along. Having overcome the wire and minefields, the company of Raikunov destroyed two bunkers and on the left bank of the river Tsemes along the railroad branch line rapidly moved towards the city center. Having destroyed several ambushes of the enemy, Alexander Vasilyevich with his fighters surrounded and stormed the building of the railway station. At 06.45, Senior Lieutenant A.V. Raikunov reported to the landing force headquarters by radio: “I occupied the station, raised the Naval flag”. White-blue cloth, hoisted above the station building by foreman of the 2nd articleV. A. Smorzhevsky , later had a great influence on the morale of the paratroopers. Alexander Vasilievich subsequently recalled:
The Germans did not give rest to the Soviet naval flag, waving in the depths of their defense. Many times they tried to knock him down with artillery and mortar fire, the whole flag was torn with bullets and shrapnel ... In the most difficult moments when it seemed: well, I couldn’t stand it anymore, when dizziness and weakness from hunger and thirst were poured from my feet, you look at your Soviet a flag that flies overhead, and the soul is filled with pride, and as if from the inside someone suggests: you must stand, you must win! And from somewhere again come strength.
- From the book of G. N. Kholostyakov “Eternal Flame”.
By dawn, the Raikunov company also captured the three elevator towers and the railway depot, and a little later the railroad club. The Germans soon came to their senses and abandoned large forces of infantry and tanks to eliminate the landing force. The company of Raikunov, who most deeply penetrated the defense of the Germans, was cut off from the moorings. For nearly six days, the Marines fought an unequal battle with the superior forces of the enemy in complete surroundings, lacking food and water. On September 13, the radio failed, and communication with the headquarters ceased. And only the flag above the station building testified that Raikunov and his fighters continued to fight. For the last two days, the Marines held back the onslaught of the enemy with weapons that they got in battle or during night sorties. A lot of trouble brought paratroopers enemy tanks. It became especially difficult after the shells of the armored strikers ran out.
The Germans realized that we had little ammunition, and their tanks began to approach the elevator towers at 60–70 meters and hit them point-blank. This took on them the evil that people were ready for anything. Foreman Vladimir Kolesnikov saw on the platform where the tanks, the sewer manhole hatch. With my permission, he made his way there at night with grenades. When in the morning the first tank approached the well for six or seven meters, Kolesnikov quickly leaned out and threw a bunch of grenades under the tracks. The tank spun on the spot! From the second, the foreman probably noticed - this tank went straight to him. Kolesnikov did not lose his head and did not throw, but simply thrust grenades under the caterpillar, he himself fell to the bottom of the well. And he blew up this tank. We believed that Kolesnikov was dead. But after the Germans pulled out their tanks at night, the foreman crawled into our tower - he was only badly bruised and stunned. And the tanks began to keep careful.
On one of the most difficult days, the Marines even forced enemy aircraft to work for themselves. Having bitten through the German signaling system, they misled German bombers with signal rockets, which dropped bombs on their own troops. The heroic actions of the company Raikunova pulled off a large enemy forces, which contributed to the speedy release of Novorossiysk. By the morning of September 16, units of the 30th Infantry Division reached the area of the station and the elevator and released the marines. In just six days of fighting, Raikunov’s fighters repulsed 28 counterattacks of the Germans, destroyed 2 enemy tanks, destroyed 16 weapon emplacements and destroyed up to 560 enemy soldiers and officers. In this case, the losses of the company were estimated by the command as small. On the same day, September 16, 1943, A.V. Raikunov was promoted to lieutenant commander and awarded the Order of the Red Banner . By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 18, 1943, for exemplary performance of the combat tasks of the command on the front of the fight against the German invaders and the courage and heroism shown to Lieutenant Commander Alexander Vasilyevich Raikunov, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
After the liberation of Novorossiysk, the 393rd Separate Marine Battalion was returned to Gelendzhik, where, until the end of 1943, its personnel carried out garrison service and guarded the coast. In January 1944, the battalion was transferred to the Kerch Peninsula. Since January 23, Lieutenant-Captain A.V. Raikunov participated in the liberation of the Crimea, fought on the streets of Kerch , stormed Sevastopol. After the defeat of the fascist troops in the Crimea, garrison service in Sevastopol again followed. A new military order was received only in the late summer of 1944. On August 27, the battalion units embarked on ships and headed for the shores of Romania . After landing in Constanta, the battalion was to take part in amphibious operations on the coast of Bulgaria . However, at dawn on September 2, 1944, the explosives minesweeper, on which Alexander Vasilyevich was located, was torpedoed by a German U-19 submarine and quickly sank 15 miles from the coast. All the officers of the crew, 53 sailors and 22 paratroopers were killed. Among the few survivors picked up by the patrol boat was Lieutenant Commander Raikunov. Alexander Vasilyevich quickly recovered from the shock and, as part of one of the assault detachments formed from the battalion, participated in operations to capture the ports of Varna and Burgas . Then he got into the crew, which overtook the captured ships in the Soviet ports. In October 1944, Lieutenant-Captain A.V. Raikunov was sent to Baku for courses by the commanders of boats at the Caspian Higher Naval School [7] . After graduation, Alexander Vasilyevich continued his service on the Black Sea Fleet as commander of the minesweeper of the 3rd trawling brigade. The crew of A.V. Raikunova made mine clearance of the fairways and the Black Sea ports. In 1947, while working on the traverse of the Tendrovsky Spit, a sea mine detonation occurred. The blast wave of Alexander Vasilyevich was thrown overboard. The sailors of the minesweeper rescued the heavily contused commander, but his military service was over. After treatment at the hospital, Captain-Lieutenant A.V. Raikunov was discharged for health reasons. Later he was given the military rank of captain of the 3rd rank of the reserve.
After his dismissal from military service, A.V. Raikunov returned to Stalingrad. He worked as director of secondary vocational school number 8, then in engineering positions at the Stalingrad (since 1961 - Volgograd) Tractor Plant. After retirement, Alexander Vasilyevich took an active part in the military-patriotic work. His memories of the war formed the basis of his book “The Company, Follow Me!”. Alexander Vasilyevich died on September 15, 1997. He was buried in Volgograd on Dimitrievskom (Central) cemetery .
Awards and titles
- Gold Star Medal (09/18/1943);
- Order of Lenin (09/18/1943);
- Order of the Red Banner (09/16/1943);
- Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree (11.03.1985);
- Order of the Red Star (01.20.1944);
- medals, including:
- medal "For Military Merit" (03/27/1942);
- Medal "For the Defense of Odessa" ;
- Medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus" ;
- the medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" ;
- honorary citizen of the city of Novorossiysk (1980).
Memory
- In the name of the Hero of the Soviet Union A. V. Raikunov, a street in the Nakhimov district of the city of Sevastopol and a street in the southern district of the city of Novorossiysk are named.
- Memorial plaques in honor of A.V. Raikunov, Hero of the Soviet Union, are installed in the city of Volgograd on the house where he lived (Chuikov Street, 37) and on the facade of the Volgograd Vocational and Technical College (Dzerzhinsky Street, 2).
- The name of the Hero of the Soviet Union A.V. Raikunov is immortalized on a memorial plaque on the building of the railway station of the city of Novorossiysk.
- A memorial plaque in memory of Raikunov was installed by the Russian Military History Society on the building of the secondary school where he studied.
Notes
- ↑ The name of the city of Volgograd in the years 1925-1961.
- ↑ Now Volgograd Vocational College.
- ↑ In 1939, the service life in the Navy of the Red Army was extended to five years.
- ↑ A look into the story. Chapter 17. From football fields to battlefields . The official website of FK Sevastopol.
- ↑ From January 3, 1942 - the 83rd Marine Brigade.
- ↑ Now in the city of Novorossiysk.
- ↑ Nowadays Azerbaijan Higher Naval School.
Bibliography
- Raikunov A.V. Roth, follow me !. - Krasnodar: Krasnodar Prince. publishing house, 1984. - 141 p.
Literature
- Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. College I. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1988. - T. 2 / Lyubov - Yashchuk /. - 863 s. - 100 000 copies - ISBN 5-203-00536-2 .
- Andreev S. A. The perfected by them is immortal: in 2 books. Book 1. - Moscow : Higher School, 1976. - P. 117-119. - 336 seconds
- Heroes of the Soviet Union, Navy, 1937-1945: biographical guide / comp.: P. G. Tarasov, Sh. Ya. Billevich, V. A. Blokhin, etc .; under total ed. V.N. Alekseeva. - M .: Military Publishing, 1977. - p. 406. - 558 p.
- Rumyantsev N. M. People of the legendary feat: krat. biographies and descriptions of the heroic deeds of the Heroes of the Soviet Union, those who were born, lived and live in the Saratov region. - Saratov: Volga Prince. publishing house, 1968. - P. 418-419. - 592 s.
- Front-line commanders recall: collection / comp. N. S. Bizyukov. - Krasnodar: Krasnodar Prince. publishing house, 1983. - p. 86-92. - 304 s.
- Kurochkin A.P., Tatarenko V.T. Chapter 7. Alley of Heroes // Absheron Meridian: a documentary novel / ed. V. G. Kalinina. - Baku: Azerneshr, 1989. - p. 124-127. - 208 s.
- Starshinov N. V. Heroes do not die // Glow over the waves . - Simferopol: Tavria, 1971. - 158 p.
- Bachelors G. N. Eternal Flame . - M .: Military Publishing, 1976. - 415 p.
- Abramov E.P. "Black Death". Soviet marines in battle . - M .: Yauza: Eksmo, 2009. - 576 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-36724-5 .
Documents
- Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union .
- Order of the Red Banner (award list and award order) .
- Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (information from the card awarded to the 40th anniversary of the Victory) .
- Order of the Red Star (award list and award order) .
- Medal “For Military Merit” (award list and award order) .
- Order of the Red Banner (award list and award order) .
Links
- Raikunov, Alexander Vasilievich . The site " Heroes of the country ."
- Raikunov Alexander Vasilyevich . People and Books.
- Volgograd Vocational and Technical College. Our graduates. Raikunov Alexander Vasilyevich .