Cossacks near Moscow in 41st

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In our country, in places consecrated by the shed blood of defenders, the pictures of the past seem to arise in consciousness. One of these places is the 95th kilometer of the Novorizhskoe highway, the village of Fedyukovo near Moscow. A memorial cross and an obelisk with the names of the soldiers who fell here remind of the tragic and at the same time majestic events that took place in November 1941.

The whole world knows about the feat of General Panfilov's soldiers who defended the borders of the capital. Much less is known about the immortal feat accomplished, practically in the same places, by the Cossacks of the 4th cavalry squadron of the 37th Armavir cavalry regiment of the 50th Kuban cavalry division of the 2nd cavalry general Dovator corps.

The morning of November 19, 1941 was frosty. Winter came early that year, and the ground froze through. The Cossacks, exhausted from many days of marches and battles, did not have the strength to hammer the loam frozen into the ice, and they did not have shovels. They lay in hastily dug holes in the snow, listening to the distant hum of tank engines. It was German tankers who were warming up the engines of their vehicles.

Intelligence reported that in the village of Sheludkovo, a battalion of enemy infantry with tanks, artillery and mortars was concentrated. In Yazvishche there was an accumulation of equipment, up to 40 tanks and 50 vehicles with infantry. The Nazis were preparing to attack.

Steel cars soon showed up. In columns, kicking up snow dust, they swiftly moved along the country road to the breakthrough to the Volokolamsk highway. Dozens of German T-III medium tanks. Submachine gunners followed them - near the company.

The Cossacks were not mistaken about their fate. They clearly realized that they were taking their last battle at Fidyukovo. This is evidenced by the fact that before the battle they released and dispersed their horses, and the breeders prepared to repel the attack along with the rest of the soldiers - each rifle was counted. The Cossacks had no choice - the enemy was in Moscow.

The 37 Cossacks who took up the defensive had at their disposal a pair of light machine guns, carbines, daggers and checkers. To fight tanks, the soldiers had a "new" weapon - bottles with a self-igniting combustible mixture.

The Cossacks buried themselves in the snow at the very bank of the river in order to have time with one throw to reach a passing tank and throw a bottle on the grate located behind the tower, through which the engine "breathed".

The daredevil was covered with carbine fire by his comrades, trying to cut off the infantry covering the tanks. During the first attack, the Cossacks managed to set fire to several cars.

The tanks that survived the first battle withdrew, but the attacks were soon renewed. Now the defensive positions of the Cossacks were well known to the enemy, and the tanks could conduct aimed fire. But new attacks by the Nazis were repelled. The Kubans also suffered losses, but even the seriously wounded remained in the ranks, continuing to fire at the enemy to the last.

Realizing that frontal attacks would not be able to cope with the Cossacks for a long time, the Germans sent tanks with infantrymen on armor bypassing the positions of the Kuban in order to strike from the rear. In the heat of battle, the Cossacks late saw tanks in their rear and did not manage to blow up the bridge over the Gryada River. And now the approaches to it were being shot by the enemy. A small group of wounded Cossacks under the leadership of the junior political instructor Ilyenko (the commander died the day before, and there were no officers in the squadron) took up defensive positions on the way of the tanks. The battle flared up with renewed vigor, the enemy's new steel boxes flamed.

By evening, the fire stopped, there was no one to resist the enemy, but the Germans also stopped attacking. The Cossacks completed their task, on that day the enemy could not saddle the Volokolamskoe highway, and at the place where the Cossack squadron took its last battle, 28 tanks remained to burn out, almost one and a half hundred German corpses were numb in the snow.

One more episode can be noted that characterizes the Kuban heroes. Before the battle, obeying human compassion, they did not fulfill the strict order of the Headquarters: when the Red Army units retreated, they had to burn villages behind them so that the Germans, who were experiencing problems with supplies, had nowhere to spend the night in severe frosts. However, not all residents of the village of Fedyukovo fled to the forests, and burning their huts meant condemning innocent compatriots, mainly women, old people and children, to certain death. And the Kuban Cossacks, risking being tribunal (if they had survived in that battle), did not burn the village.

Messengers were sent to the Cossacks who fought to the death with orders to withdraw, but, unfortunately, not one of them made it out alive. Only the son of the regiment, Alexander Kopylov, was able to pass on the battlefield, but it was already evening, he could not find any of the living Cossacks: “… through the pipe I got to the battlefield, along the passages dug by the soldiers in the snow, I crawled to several firing points. Tanks were burning all around, but our soldiers were no longer alive. In one place I found a dead German officer, took the tablet from him and came back."

The regiment commander was reported about what he saw. The Armavir regiment, having collected all the available people, struck in horse ranks across the Volokolamsk highway. The Cossacks launched this murderous attack hoping to save at least one of their own. And if there is no one left, then take revenge. Even if at the cost of your life.

In the evening twilight, the Germans, not understanding how weak the forces of the Kuban Cossacks were attacking them, could not withstand the rapid furious attack and hastily retreated. For just a couple of hours, the village was again in the hands of the Cossacks. The Kubans were able to collect their wounded (several participants in the battle survived). But not all of them were found even dead comrades. There was neither time, nor energy, nor opportunity to bury those found in the icy ground. They were buried in the snow at the edge. The regiment commander, in which there were only a few dozen living Cossacks, strove to leave the village as soon as possible, without waiting for the Germans to regroup and strike. This would mean the death of the entire regiment. And the Armavir regiment left on a winter, snowy night, giving the last honors to its comrades.

After the battle on November 19, 1941, the 37th Armavir Cavalry Regiment, having accepted the replenishment, continued to fight, and it did it just as heroically. By the end of the war, his battle banner was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner and Suvorov, he became the 9th Guards and received the honorary name "Sedletsky".

Already today, at the site of the death of the Kuban Cossacks, by the forces of the Kuban Cossack community and the Kuban community of Moscow, a bow was erected to the heroes who fought and died, stopping the enemy on the outskirts of Moscow.