Kolchin Viktor Aleksandrovich

Victor Kolchin was born in 1921 in a peasant family. Parents: Mother - Lyubov Kolchin, father - Alexander Matveyevich Kolchin. Paternal grandfather was a blacksmith. The family had eight children, Victor was the fourth.

Brothers and sisters: Barbara (born in 1913), Feofan (born in 1915), Nadezhda (born in 1918), Alexey (born in 1923), Faina (born in 1925), Vera (Born in 1926), Michael (born in 1927).

Prior to World War II, V. A. Kolchin lived in his father’s house, which was located at: Yaroslavl , p. Norskoe , st. Nekrasovskaya (now the 2nd Krasnokholmskaya), 6. The house existed until the 1980s, then burned down and was destroyed. Currently, there is a wasteland on the site of the house.

He was married to Elizabeth Vasilievna (nee Volkova).

In the early 1940s, V. A. Kolchin worked at the Yaroslavl Electromechanical Plant ^[1] (the successor of this plant is OAO Eldin ). In the description of the history of the plant "Eldin" there are the following lines: "From June 22, 1941, hot war days began. The factory launched production of tank starters, artillery shells and other products for the needs of the front. In the fall of 1941, the plant’s team was assigned a task of extraordinary importance: to master the manufacture of a nozzle, one of the most important parts of a projectile for guards mortars, later called “ Katyushas .” On November 1, 1941, the Yaroslavl Electric Machine Building Plant received an order to evacuate to the city of Tomsk ” ^[2] .

Earlier in Tomsk, by order of the leadership of the USSR, the Electrosila plant was evacuated from Leningrad , which was the beginning of the development of the construction of a large-scale electromotor plant in Tomsk . In the autumn of 1941, the State Defense Committee decided to evacuate from Yaroslavl a workshop that produced tank starters ST-700 and some other defense products. At the end of 1941, as part of shop No. 23 ^{[3] of the} Yaroslavl Electromechanical Plant, producing tank starters, V. A. Kolchin was evacuated to Tomsk .

On November 29, 1941, trains with equipment arrived in Tomsk (two trains containing about two hundred machines) and people from the Yaroslavl Electric Machine Building Plant ^[4] . By that time, the evacuation of thirty different industrial enterprises had already begun in Tomsk . There were problems with the accommodation of people, there were difficulties in unloading and moving equipment. There were severe frosts (the temperature reached −40 ° C), and there were no suitable premises for living and working. Many evacuated plants were located in existing production buildings, but an electromotor plant was created virtually from scratch. Part of the equipment was placed in the corps, built urgently, and some remained in open space.

At the beginning of 1942, 1012 workers worked in an electromotor factory. In March 1942, the plant was launched a hard plan for the production of tank starters. Many workers worked and rested right in the workplace without leaving their workshop. The plan has been executed. Kolchin Victor remained in Tomsk alone - his wife and little daughter were sent to their parents in Yaroslavl .

About the serious attitude of V. A. Kolchina to work in Tomsk is indicated by the fact that in March 1942, at the city meeting of Stakhanovites resumed in wartime, he was among the best 44 workers of the plant. From the factory documents, it follows that at that time V. A. Kolchin worked as a grinder ^[5] .

Being on a good labor account, V. A. Kolchin had a “reservation” and could not be called to the front — such workers were needed in production. Nevertheless, the exacerbation of the military situation in mid-1943 prompted many factory workers to come to the defense of the Soviet Motherland with arms. In mid-1943 V.Kolchin decided to volunteer to the front, despite the presence of "armor". As a rule, people went to the front, and on the way they wrote to the plant about their decision. There was a shortage of personnel, but the people who remained to work in the rear were deeply respectful of the decision of their comrades to join the ranks of the active army.

Factory workers remembered their heroes even decades later. A memorial stele was erected at the enterprise’s territory for the factory’s workers who fell at the front. The name of V. A. Kolchin was also stamped on it ^[6] . In 1970, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War , the plant workers held an event “15 shock decades”. Plant brigades were named after workers who did not return from the war. The workers committed themselves to making the norms for themselves and for them, as if these people are now standing next to them and working together shoulder to shoulder. In those solemn days there was a brigade, named after V. A. Kolchin ^[7] .

V. Kolchin got to the army in action on June 6, 1943. Tomsk city military commissariat he was identified as a communications man, for which, in the first months, he most likely underwent special training.

Signalers (radio operators and telephonists) at the front were important and irreplaceable. Fighting was conducted on the front lines, and the command, which led the course of military operations, was concentrated in the headquarters, often located at a considerable distance from individual units and formations. All coordination of the fighting was carried out through telephone and radio communications. The signaler was obliged to build a connection before the start of the battle, or right during the battle, and also to remove all equipment in a timely manner in case of retreat or movement of troops. Breaks of mines and bombs led to a permanent disruption of communication. The task of telephonists was its urgent restoration, regardless of the danger and often at the cost of their own lives. The regiment could have a few dozen signalers.

The combat path of V. A. Kolchin was in the 264th mortar regiment of the 4th Guards Kantemirovsky Tank Corps .

From August 3 to August 23, 1943, the final stage of the Kursk Battle was held, which was called the Belgorod-Kharkov operation. The regiment took part in the battles on the Kharkov direction and at first belonged to the Voronezh Front. Then the 1st Ukrainian Front was formed, where the 4th Tank Corps entered along with the 264th Mortar Regiment.

See the full combat route of the 264th mortar regiment .

V. A. Kolchin was in the rank of junior sergeant guard, took part in hostilities from December 20, 1943 until the day of his death on April 16, 1945. For his courage, he was twice awarded the medal "For Courage" , the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree and the Order of the Red Star .

After the protracted battles of the end of 1943 - the beginning of 1944, the first orders for awarding the 264th mortar regiment appeared only on February 17-19, 1944. Guards Junior Sergeant Kolchin Viktor Alexandrovich ^[8] was twice presented to the medal "For Courage" for the fact that throughout the battles from 12/20/43 to 02/16/44, "repeatedly selflessly eliminated the gusts of communication under heavy enemy fire" “Ensured the uninterrupted operation of the radio communication of the regimental headquarters with divisional headquarters, regardless of the firing raids and actions of the enemy aviation” ^[9] .

The Order of Glory of the 3rd degree was awarded to V. V. Kolchin for the fact that “in battles in the area of Zolochev on July 22, 1944, being with the advanced infantry units with the task of keeping a continuous communication on the radio between the command post of the regiment and the infantry commander He participated in repelling the enemy's counterattack, destroying 2 soldiers from his submachine gun and took 5 prisoners. Acting together with the infantry, he first broke into the enemy's trenches and destroyed 6 Germans ” ^[10] .

V.A. Kolchin was presented to the Order of the Red Star because “on 10/28/1944, being on the NP of the 6th battery in the area of ​​the Kruzhlova village, he kept uninterrupted radio communication between the OP and the NP. When the enemy, going to the counterattack, approached the NP, Comrade. Kolchin fire from personal weapons repelled the enemy's infantry counterattack, while destroying 6 Nazis ” ^[11] .

The transition from Poland to Germany for the 264th mortar regiment was marked on April 16, 1945 by the beginning of a tactical breakthrough of enemy defenses between the rivers Neisse and Spree . The breakthrough began with the Soviet forces crossing the Neisse River and the exit to the town of Jemlitz . On this day, in a battle with the German invaders, V. A. Kolchin was killed ^[12]

It follows from the documents that the initial burial place of V. A. Kolchin was the place of the battles of the Red Army. Later, the remains of V. Kolchin were reburied in the memorial to soldiers-liberators and prisoners of camps in the city of Hoyerswerda (Saxony, Germany).

The memorial military cemetery is located in the Neunstadt district of Hoyerswerda . It represents an area of ​​50 × 100 m, lined with plates. In the center of the square stands the obelisk, next to it is the cup for the eternal flame. Behind the monument, there are 6 large slabs above the mass graves, on which the names of the fallen are carved. A total of 406 people were buried in the memorial, of which 167 soldiers and officers of the Red Army, 12 soldiers of the 2nd Polish Army, 79 Soviet prisoners of war and prisoners of war, 135 Polish prisoners of camps, 13 prisoners from Yugoslavia and other countries. Only 260 names of the buried are known, 146 names are unknown ^[13] .

The authorities of the city of Hoyerswerda respect the burial of warriors and prisoners of the camps. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the liberation of the city from the Nazi regime, the grand opening of the memorial complex created by the sculptor Jürgen von Voisky was held. On the big sandstone slabs, the names of the soldiers and victims buried here are immortalized. The central sculpture of a person on his knees symbolizes the unbroken will to freedom and appeals to the memory of the crimes of the past ^[14] .

• Sinyaev V.S., Dmitrienko N.M., Konovalov P.S. Siberian electromotor. - Tomsk: ed. Tomsk University, 1973.