Cossack Konstantin Nedorubov was a full Cavalier of St. George, received a nominal checker from Budyonny, became a Hero Soviet Union even before the 1945 Victory Parade. He wore his Golden Star of the Hero along with the "royal" crosses.
Khutor Rubizhny
Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was born on May 21, 1889. The place of his birth is the village of Rubezhny, the village of Berezovskaya, the Ust-Medveditsky district of the Don army region (today it is the Danilovsky district of the Volgograd region).
The village of Berezovskaya was indicative. 2524 people lived in it, it included 426 households. There was also a magistrate, and a parish school, and medical centers, and two factories: a tannery and a brick one. There was even a telegraph office and a savings bank.
Konstantin Nedorubov received elementary education in a parochial school, he learned to read and write, to count, listened to the lessons of the Law of God. Otherwise, he received a traditional Cossack education: from childhood he rode and knew how to handle weapons. This science was more useful to him in life than school lessons.
"Full Bow"
Konstantin Nedorubov was called up for service in January 1911, he ended up in the 6th hundred of the 15th cavalry regiment of the 1st Don Cossack division. His regiment was quartered in Tomashov, Lublin province. By the beginning of the First World War, Nedorubov was a junior officer and commanded a half-platoon of regimental scouts.
The 25-year-old Cossack earned his first George a month after the start of the war - Nedorubov, together with his Don scouts, broke into the location of the German battery, got prisoners and six guns.
The second George "touched the chest" of the Cossack in February 1915. Making a solitary reconnaissance near Przemysl, the officer stumbled upon a small farm, where he found sleeping Austrians. Nedorubov decided not to delay, waiting for reinforcements, threw a grenade into the courtyard and began to imitate a desperate battle with his voice and shots. From the German language, he is nothing but "Hyunde hoch!" did not know, but the Austrians had enough of that. Sleepy, they began to leave the houses with their hands up. So Nedorubov brought them to winter road to the regiment. There were 52 soldiers and one lieutenant taken prisoner.
Cossack Nedorubov received the third George "for unparalleled courage and courage" during the Brusilov breakthrough.
Then Nedorubov was mistakenly handed another George of the 3rd degree, but after that, in the corresponding order for the 3rd Cavalry Corps, his surname and the entry opposite it “St. George Cross of the 3rd degree No. 40288” were crossed out, “No. th degree" and reference: "See. Order for Corps No. 73 1916.
Finally, Konstantin Nedorubov became a full Knight of St. George when, together with his Cossack scouts, he captured the headquarters German division, obtained important documents and captured the German infantry general - her commander.
In addition to the St. George Crosses, Konstantin Nedorubov during the First World War was also awarded two St. George medals for courage. He ended this war with the rank of coroner.
White-red commander
The Cossack Nedorubov did not have to live long without a war, but in the Civil War he did not join either the Whites or the Reds until the summer of 1918. On June 1, he nevertheless entered, along with other Cossacks of the village, into the 18th Cossack regiment of ataman Peter Krasnov.
However, the war "for the whites" did not last long for Nedorubov. Already on July 12, he was taken prisoner, but was not shot.
On the contrary, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and became a squadron commander in cavalry division Mikhail Blinov, where other Cossacks who had gone over to the side of the Reds fought side by side with him.
The Blinovskaya cavalry division showed itself in the most difficult sectors of the front. For the famous defense of Tsaritsyn, Budyonny personally handed Nedorubov a nominal checker. For battles with Wrangel, the Cossack was awarded red revolutionary bloomers, although he was presented to the Order of the Red Banner, he did not receive it because of his too heroic biography in the tsarist army. Received Nedorubov in Civil and wounded, machine-gun, in the Crimea. A Cossack carried a bullet stuck in his lung until the end of his life.
Prisoner of Dmitlag
After the Civil War, Konstantin Nedorubov held positions "on the ground", in April 1932 he became a collective farm foreman in the Bobrov farm.
He did not have a quiet life here either. In the fall of 1933, he was convicted under article 109 "for losing grain in the field." Nedorubov and his assistant Vasily Sutchev fell under the distribution. They were accused “to the heap” not only of stealing grain, but also of damaging agricultural equipment, they were given 10 years in the camps.
In Dmitrovlage, at the construction site of the Moscow-Volga Canal, Nedorubov and Sutchev worked as best they could, but they knew how well, they could not do otherwise. The construction was handed over ahead of schedule - July 15, 1937. Nikolai Yezhov personally accepted the work. The leaders received an amnesty.
After the camp, Konstantin Nedorubov worked as the head of the horse-post station, before the war itself - as the supply manager of the machine-testing station.
"I know how to fight them!"
When the Great Patriotic War began, Nedorubov was 52 years old, he was not subject to conscription due to age. But the Cossack hero could not stay at home.
When the consolidated Don Cossack cavalry division began to form in the Stalingrad region, the NKVD dismissed Nedorubov's candidacy - they remembered both merits in the tsarist army and a criminal record.
Then the Cossack went to the First Secretary of the Berezovsky District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Ivan Shlyapkin, and said: “I’m not asking for a cow, but I want to shed blood for my homeland! Young people die by the thousands because they are inexperienced! I won four St. George's Crosses in the war with the Germans, I know how to fight with them.
Ivan Shlyapkin insisted that Nedorubov be taken into the militia. under personal responsibility. At the time, this was a very bold move.
"Spellbound"
In mid-July, the Cossack regiment, in which Nedorubov's hundred fought, repelled German attempts to force the Kagalnik River in the Peshkovo region for four days. After that, the Cossacks drove the enemy out of the farms of Zadonsky and Aleksandrovka, destroying one and a half hundred Germans.
Nedorubov especially distinguished himself in the famous. His award list states: “Having been surrounded under the village of Kushchevskaya, fire from machine guns and hand grenades, together with his son, he destroyed up to 70 fascist soldiers and officers.”
For the battles in the area of the village of Kushchevskaya on October 26, 1943, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In this battle, the son of Konstantin Nedorubov, Nikolai, received 13 wounds during mortar shelling and lay covered with earth for three days. Quite by accident, the inhabitants of the village stumbled upon him, burying the Cossacks in mass graves. Cossack women Matryona Tushkanova and Serafima Sapelnyak carried Nikolai to the hut at night, washed and bandaged his wounds and left. The fact that his son remained alive, Konstantin Nedorubov found out much later, but now he fought with redoubled courage, for his son.
Hero
At the end of August 1942, a hundred of Nedorubov destroyed 20 vehicles of the rear column with military equipment and about 300 Nazis. On September 5, in a battle for a height of 374.2 near the village of Kurinsky, Apsheronsky District, Krasnodar Territory, the Cossack Nedorubov single-handedly approached a mortar battery, threw grenades at it and destroyed the entire mortar crew from the PPSh. He himself was wounded, but did not leave the location of the regiment.
On October 16, near the village of Martuki, a hundred of Nedorubov repelled four SS attacks in a day and almost all died on the battlefield. Lieutenant Nedorubov received 8 bullet wounds and ended up in a Sochi hospital, then in Tbilisi, where the commission ruled that the Cossack was unfit for further service for health reasons.
Then, returning to his native village, he learned about the awarding of the Star of the Hero and that his son Nikolai was alive.
Of course, he didn't stay at home. He returned to the front and in May 1943 took command of the squadron of the 41st guards regiment 11th Guards Cavalry Division of the 5th Guards Don Cossack Corps.
He fought in Ukraine and Moldova, in Romania and Hungary. In December 1944, in the Carpathians, already with the rank of captain of the guard, Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov was again wounded. This time he was commissioned for good.
On his 80th birthday, the authorities gave the old Cossack a house, he was the first in the village to have a TV, but the role of Konstantin Nedorubov, “treated with honors,” was burdensome, he continued to lead a simple lifestyle, chopped wood himself, led the household with his family, continued to exercise until the end of his life with a heavy poker, wielding it like a pike.
The Cossack died in December 1978, half a year before his 90th birthday. He left - besides Nikolai - a son, George, and a daughter, Maria.
He fought with Wrangel, beat the Nazis near the village of Kushchevskaya. A well-armed and outnumbered enemy every time retreated before the courage and courage of a simple Cossack. Full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union Konstantin Nedorubov "knew how to fight."
The attack on the Kuban
In July 1942, the German units, having occupied Rostov-on-Don, moved to the Kuban. After several days of heavy fighting, the Red Army, suffering huge losses, retreated. And while reserves were being pulled up from the deep rear to this sector of the front, it was necessary at all costs to stop the enemy’s rapid advance, to gain time.
Among the defenders of the Kuban steppes was a volunteer cavalry squadron under the command of the already middle-aged Cossack Konstantin Nedorubov. Fearless cavalry against elite mountain infantry bristling with tank armor German units…
Wars of the Cossack Nedorubov
Don Cossack Konstantin Nedorubov fought in the First World War. Then, in 1914, with the rank of junior officer, he commanded a half-platoon of scouts in a cavalry regiment. Military craft was easy for him, and courage and resourcefulness allowed him not only to survive, but also to prove himself.
Just a month after the start of the war, the 25-year-old Cossack earned his first George Cross - the highest award tsarist Russia, when in the battle near Tomashev, together with his colleagues, he broke into the location of the German battery, captured prisoners and six guns.
By the end of the war, Nedorubov became a full Knight of St. George - four Georges flaunted on his chest.
The Cossack received one of them when, during the battles for Przemysl, he single-handedly brought 52 captives to the location of the regiment. “I went out to a building. I hear a hubbub not in Russian, - Nedorubov later recalled. - He pulled out a grenade and threw it at the threshold. I myself hid in the ditch, I sit. After the explosion, I hear a hubbub - the Austrians are jumping out of the windows.
Seeing a whole enemy platoon, the Cossack did not retreat. By imitating the presence of numerous forces, he confused the already discouraged Austrians. “I command:“ Right flank, bypass. I got up myself, I wave my saber - forward! So he brought 52 prisoners to his."
In addition to the St. George's Crosses, Nedorubov during the First World War was also awarded two St. George medals for courage. He ended this war with the rank of coroner.
Then there was the Civil. The Cossack more than once switched from white to red, but everywhere he fought bravely - he simply could not do otherwise. As a squadron commander in Blinov's cavalry division, he participated in the defense of Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) and even introduced himself to the Order of the Red Banner, but he never received the award - his biography in the ranks of the tsarist army was too heroic.
When the Great Patriotic War began, Konstantin Nedorubov was already 52 years old. The Cossack was not subject to conscription because of his age, but he also could not sit idly by.
“Young people are dying by the thousands because they are inexperienced! I won four St. George's Crosses in the war with the Germans, I know how to fight them, ”Nedorubov sought the right to go to the front.
In October 1941, Konstantin Nedorubov led a volunteer cavalry squadron. Stanitsa Kushchevskaya, side by side with him, was defended by his son Nikolai.
Kushchevskaya attack
The battles for the village began on July 29, 42 and lasted for several days. With heavy losses for both sides, Kushchevskaya repeatedly changed hands. The positions of the Germans were stormed by the Don Cossacks in full height, and the enemy, unable to withstand the psychological attack, rolled back, but soon launched a counterattack, returning the initiative of the battle.
On the morning of August 2, Soviet artillery hit the lines occupied by the Nazis. Under the deafening roar of guns, the Cossack cavalry moved on the attack. The German troops opened fire late, and the defenders, suffering losses, cut into the enemy lines.
A letter was found in the satchel of the deceased German soldier Alfred Kurz: “Everything that we heard about the Cossacks of the times of 1914 pales before the horrors that we experience when we meet them now. (...) The Cossacks are a whirlwind that sweeps away everything in its path: all obstacles and all obstacles.
When the Germans moved to the positions of the regiment, trying to cut off the Cossacks from other parts of the division, Konstantin Nedorubov, together with his son, rushed to cover the flank of the squadron. “Throwing hand grenades into the enemy’s chains, opening heavy fire from the PPSh, Lieutenant Nedorubov forced the enemy chains to lie down,” they will write later in the presentation of the Cossack for the award. He himself later admitted that not a single bullet and grenade was fired just like that - each reached its goal.
The Nedorubovs together repulsed the enemy offensive, and, enticing the Cossacks, Konstantin led the squadron into another attack. "In hand-to-hand combat, over 200 enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed, and over 70 of them were destroyed by Lieutenant Nedorubov."
Hero
After Kushchevskaya there were many more battles and exploits. Some of them are described in the presentation of the Cossack for the highest award - Nedorubov became a Hero of the Soviet Union in October 43rd, and in December, after a serious wound, he was commissioned with the rank of captain.
After the war, Konstantin Nedorubov lived and worked in the village of Berezovskaya, Danilovsky District, Volgograd Region.
The heroic Cossack wore the Golden Star along with the St. George Crosses.
It is to such Cossacks
"The contribution of the Cossacks to the victory in the Great Patriotic War" and continuing the story about it, today I present a poster dedicated to the legendary Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov.Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov(May 21, 1889 – December 12, 1978)— unique personality, veteran three wars- 1st World, Civil and Great Patriotic. Full St. George Cavalier. In the history of Russia, there are only three complete Knights of St. George and at the same time Heroes of the Soviet Union: Marshal Budyonny, General Tyulenev and Captain Nedorubov.
Nedorubov is the only hereditary Don Cossack in Russia who had the highest awards of both Tsarist and Soviet Russia.
Konstantin Nedorubov was born on May 21 (June 2), 1889, on the Rubezhny farm of the Berezovskaya village (now this area is part of the Lovyagin farm, Danilovsky district, Volgograd region).
According to the publication "Unknown Facts of a Famous Cossack", co-authored by a distant relative of Nedorubov, Konstantin Iosifovich comes from an old Cossack family. The publication states that the first official mention of the Nedorubov family can be found in one of the letters of the Cossacks of the village, dated 1848.
In 1911, Konstantin Nedorubov was called to military service in the Russian Imperial Army, was assigned to the 1st Don Cossack Division, which was part of the army corps of General Brusilov (Warsaw Military District).
Since the beginning of the First World War, Nedorubov fought as part of his regiment on the Southwestern and Romanian fronts.
For his services during this period, Nedorubov was awarded four St. George's Crosses (full St. George's Cavalier) and two St. George's medals.
The hero himself in his autobiography wrote sparingly and dryly about this: “In 1911 he was drafted into old army. He served until 1917 as a private. During these years he participated in the war with the Germans and Austrians. For military exploits in battles with the Germans, I was awarded 4 crosses and 2 medals. But behind these lines are several years of war, in which Nedorubov showed miracles of heroism.
By the beginning of World War II, Nedorubov was over 50 years old, they refused to take him to the front. And Nedorubov went to the 1st Secretary of the Berezovsky District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Ivan Vladimirovich Shlyapkin. The persistence of the old Cossack: "I'm not asking for the rear! ..", - had an effect. Accepted. Like the 17-year-old son of Nedorubov - Nikolai.
In October 1941, he achieved enrollment as a volunteer in the cavalry division of the people's militia formed in the city of Uryupinsk from volunteer Cossacks. Then he formed a cavalry squadron and became its commander. Together with him, his son Nikolai served in the squadron.
Squadron commander of the 41st Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment of the 11th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Division of the 5th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Corps North Caucasian Front Guard Lieutenant Nedorubov showed unparalleled courage and heroism in defensive battles in the Kuban initial stage battles for the Caucasus.
The battle for the village of Kushchevskaya became the general in this war for the commander of the Cossack hundred Nedorubov.
In July 1942, after the breakthrough of German troops near Kharkov from Voronezh to Rostov-on-Don, a "weak link" was formed. It was clear that it was necessary to hold back the advance at any cost. German armies to the Caucasus, to the coveted Baku oil. It was decided to stop the enemy at the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory. The Kuban cavalry corps was thrown towards the Germans, which included the Don Cossack division.
“1942, July 29th. Stanitsa Kushchevskaya. The Nazis are rushing to the Volga. Their Cossack stronghold is like a bone in their throat. Against the German machine gunners, a handful of Cossacks on foot. They go to their full height, not bowing to the bullets. The Germans do not withstand the psychic attack and flee. The attack is followed by a counterattack. Kushchevskaya changed hands several times. The commanders of two Cossack divisions receive an order to recapture the village at all costs. In the morning, artillery preparation begins, and then the Cossack "lava" rushes to the attack. Horror seizes the enemy.
Later, a letter was found in the knapsack of the murdered German soldier Kurz Alfred, where he describes what he experienced in that battle: “Everything that I heard about the Cossacks of the times of 1914 pales in front of the horrors that we experience before meeting with the Cossacks now. One memory of a Cossack attack terrifies me and makes me tremble. Cossacks are some kind of whirlwind that sweeps away all obstacles and obstacles in its path. We are afraid of the Cossacks, as the retribution of the Almighty.
Near Kushchevskaya, the Don and Kuban held the line for two days. Finally, the Germans made a strategic mistake, deciding to attack our division with artillery support. The Cossacks let the enemy within a grenade throw and met with heavy fire. The father and son of the Nedorubovs were nearby: the elder watered the attackers from a machine gun, the younger sent one grenade after another into the German line. But the Germans were determined to go all the way. In the end, skillfully maneuvering, they were able to bypass the Cossacks from two sides, squeezing them into their "branded" pincers. Assessing the situation, Nedorubov once again stepped towards death.
From the award list of the Guard Lieutenant Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov:
In the battle near the village of Kushchevskaya, Rostov Region, on August 2, 1942, the enemy, numerically superior in strength, began to cover the left flank of the regiment, which threatened to isolate the regiment from other parts of the division. The squadron of Lieutenant Nedorubov's Guards steadfastly repelled the enemy's furious attacks, but under pressure from vastly superior forces, began to retreat. Guards lieutenant Nedorubov, together with his son, deputy. squadron political officer Nedorubov Nikolai Konstantinovich rushed to the left flank of the squadron, taking with him a PPSh with 4 spare discs and over 20 hand grenades. Throwing hand grenades into the enemy's chains, he opened heavy fire from the PPSh, Lieutenant Nedorubov forced the enemy to lie down. In this fierce duel, the son of Lieutenant Nedorubov was seriously wounded.
Leaving a seriously wounded son on the battlefield, Lieutenant Nedorubov with the words “Forward, for the Motherland, for Stalin, for the free, quiet Don!” threw the squadron into the attack. In a fierce hand-to-hand fight, over two hundred enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed, of which over 70 were personally destroyed by Lieutenant Nedorubov. Thanks to the exceptional courage of Lieutenant Nedorubov and the squadron trained by him, the situation in this sector was restored.
In battles, the "Donets" and "Kubans" used all the numerous tricks that were accumulated by their ancestors in previous wars and carefully passed down from generation to generation. When the Cossack attack fell on the enemy, there was a drawn-out wolf howl in the air - so the Cossacks intimidated the enemy from afar. Already within the line of sight, that is, in front of the enemy, they were engaged in vaulting - they spun in their saddles, often hanging from them, depicting the dead, and a few meters from the enemy they suddenly came to life and broke into the enemy’s location, chopping right and left and arranging there bloody heap.
In any fight, Nedorubov himself, contrary to all the canons military science, climbed on the rampage first.
After the battle of Kuschevka, Nedorubov became famous in the battle on the Tuapse direction.
In September 1942, in a battle for a strategic height near the village of Kurinsky, Krasnodar Territory, the enemy fired at our advancing chains with heavy machine-gun and mortar fire. It was impossible to advance, and then Nedorubov, speaking in official military language, "using the folds of the terrain, managed to secretly get close to three machine-gun and two mortar nests of the enemy and extinguish them with hand grenades."
Then Nedorubov sent his squadron to this place. With a swift attack, the enemy was driven back from his fortifications, which were extremely strategically advantageous. In this battle, the fourth squadron destroyed over a hundred enemy soldiers and officers, Nedorubov personally destroyed up to 30 Nazis. During this fight, the Cossack was wounded, but did not leave the battlefield. As a result, the height, dotted with enemy firing points, was taken with minimal losses.
In October of the same year, near the village of Maratuki, having withstood a brutal bombardment, several artillery and mortar fire raids, psychic attack, Nedorubov's squadron did not flinch and again distinguished himself in hand-to-hand combat with Nazi soldiers. The Cossacks repulsed four attacks of the numerically superior forces of the SS regiment units and, in hand-to-hand combat, threw the enemy back to their starting lines, destroying up to 200 Germans. Nedorubov himself then destroyed 70 Germans.
The battles in the south of Russia did not go unnoticed for the guards of Lieutenant K.I. Nedorubova. Only in the terrible battles near Kuschevka did he receive eight bullet wounds. Then there were two more wounds. After the third, difficult, at the end of 1942, the conclusion of the medical commission turned out to be inexorable: "I am not fit for military service."
For the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the German invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 25, 1943, Guards Lieutenant Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal .
“Our Iosifovich made the Red Star related to the St. George Cross,” the villagers joked.
Despite the fact that even during his lifetime Nedorubov became a living legend, no special benefits and assets for himself and his the Cossack never acquired a family in civilian life. But for all the holidays he regularly put on the Golden Star of the Hero along with four St. George's crosses.
Konstantin Nedorubov, with his attitude to awards, proved that power and the Motherland are completely different things. He did not understand why it was impossible to wear royal awards received for victories over the enemy. About the “crosses” he said: “I walked in the front row at the Victory Parade in this form. And at the reception, Comrade Stalin himself shook his hand, thanked him for participating in two wars.
On October 15, 1967, a participant in three wars, the Don Cossack Nedorubov, joined the torch-bearing group and lit the fire of Eternal Glory at the monument-ensemble to the heroes Battle of Stalingrad on the Mamaev Kurgan of the Hero City of Volgograd.
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The elderly hero was very fond of children and in peaceful years very often told schoolchildren about his adventures.
Nedorubov died on December 11, 1978 at the age of 89. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya.
In September 2007, in the city of Volgograd, in the memorial and historical museum, a monument was opened to the famous hero of the Don, the full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubov. At the same time, the first tournament in military applied sports named after the full St. George Knight, Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubova.
February 2, 2011 in the village of Yuzhny, the hero city of Volgograd, a ceremony was held for the grand opening of a new state educational institution"Volgograd Cadet Corps named after the Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubov.
May 2014 on the territory of the Cossack cadet corps with the help of his employees and students and the efforts of benefactors, a memorial sign was erected to the hero on his 125th anniversary.
Also named after the Hero are streets in the village of Berezovskaya in the Volgograd Region and in the city of Khadyzhensk in the Krasnodar Territory.
Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich - Full Cavalier of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union. In the history of our country, there were only three complete Knights of St. George and at the same time Heroes of the Soviet Union: Marshal Budyonny, General Tyulenev and Captain Nedorubov.
The fate of Konstantin Nedorubov bizarrely resembles the fate of the hero of the Quiet Don, Grigory Melekhov. Hereditary Cossack, a native of a farm with characteristic name Rubezhny (now part of the Lovyagin farm in the Volgograd region), he, along with other villagers, was drafted to the German front. There it quickly became clear that the war, with all its horrors and passions, was the native element of the Don Cossack.
He was awarded the first St. George's Cross of the 4th degree for his heroism during one of the most difficult battles near the city of Tomashev. In August 1914, pursuing the retreating Austrians, despite a hurricane of artillery shelling, a group of Don Cossacks, led by constable Nedorubov, broke into the location of the enemy battery and captured it, along with servants and ammunition.
The second St. George Cross Konstantin Iosifovich received in February 1915 for a feat during the battles for the city of Przemysl. On December 16, 1914, while on reconnaissance and exploring the village, he noticed enemy soldiers in one of the yards and decided to take them by surprise. Throwing a grenade over the fence, he filed for German command: "Hands up, squadron, surround!" The frightened soldiers, together with the officer, threw down their weapons, raised their hands and hurried out of the yard into the street. Imagine their surprise when they found themselves under the escort of one Cossack on horseback with a saber in his hand. There was nowhere to go: the weapons were left in the yard, and all 52 prisoners were escorted to the headquarters of the Cossack regiment. Scout K.I. Nedorubov reported to the commander of his unit in full uniform that, they say, he had taken prisoner. But he does not believe and asks: “Where are the rest of the scouts? With whom did you take prisoners? The answer is: "One". Then the commander asked the enemy officer: “Who took you prisoner? How many were there? He pointed to Nedorubov and raised one finger.
The young Nedorubov received the third St. George Cross for distinction in battles in June 1916 during the famous Brusilov breakthrough (counteroffensive), where he showed selfless courage and courage. “His saber did not dry out with blood,” recalled the farm Cossacks who served in the same regiment with Nedorubov. And fellow countrymen from the farm jokingly suggested that he change his last name - from "Nedorubov" to "Pererubov".
During the three and a half years of participation in the battles, he was repeatedly wounded. He was treated in hospitals in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkov and Sebryakovo (now the city of Mikhailovka).
Finally that war is over. No sooner had the Cossack returned to his native farm than the Grazhdanskaya broke out. And again the bloody whirlwind of fateful events picked up the Cossack. It was all clear on the German front, but here, in the feather-grass Don and Tsaritsyno steppes, they cut their own with their own. Who is right, who is wrong - go figure it out ...
And fate in this confusion of thoughts and passions shook the Cossack Nedorubov, like Grishka Melekhov, with a living pendulum - from red to white, from white to red ... Unfortunately, this was a fairly typical situation for that confusing and bloody time. Ordinary Cossacks, who had not read Marx and Plekhanov and were not familiar with the basics of geopolitics, could not figure out who the truth was after all in this nightmarish civil strife. But even being on opposite sides of the barricades, they fought bravely - they didn’t know how to do it differently.
At one time, Konstantin Iosifovich even commanded the red Taman cavalry regiment and took an active part in the famous defense of Tsaritsyn.
In 1922, when the flashes of war finally subsided and it became clear that Soviet power had come in earnest and for a long time, Nedorubov returned to the village in the hope of taking a break from the two wars he had experienced. But they did not really let him live peacefully - after eight years, the Cossack was nevertheless repressed by commissars in leather jackets, recalling the service in both the white and the tsarist armies. This did not surprise Nedorubov in the least and did not break him down.
“I have been in not such troubles!” - the Knight of St. George decided for himself and "gave the country coal" at the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal. As a result, he was released ahead of schedule for shock work - this is according to the official version. According to unofficial information, the camp authorities helped, having carefully studied his personal file. Still, in all ages, men of all tribes and peoples respected courage and courage ...
"Give me the right to die!"
When the Great Patriotic War broke out, the Knight of St. George Nedorubov was no longer subject to conscription - by age. By that time he was 53 years old.
But in July 1941, a squadron of Cossack militias began to form in the Don villages.
Together with his old fighting friend Sutchev, Konstantin Iosifovich resolutely went to the regional executive committee: “Give the right to apply all combat experience and die for the Motherland!” The regional executive committee was dumbfounded at first, then imbued. And they appointed the Knight of St. George as the commander of the newly formed Cossack squadron (only volunteers were recruited into it).
But here, as the Cossacks say, one problem “stuck”: his 17-year-old son, who had not reached military age by that time, “hung” on his father’s shoulders. Relatives rushed to dissuade Nikolai, but he was adamant. “Remember, son, there will be no indulgence for you,” Nedorubov Sr. said only. - I will be more strict with you than with experienced Cossacks. The son of the commander in battle must be the first! So the third war cut into the life of the Cossack Nedorubov ... And also the world war - like the first.
In July 1942, after the breakthrough of German troops near Kharkov, a "weak link" was formed along the entire length from Voronezh to Rostov-on-Don. It was clear that it was necessary at all costs to restrain the advance of the German armies to the Caucasus, to the coveted Baku oil. It was decided to stop the enemy at the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory.
The Kuban cavalry corps was thrown towards the Germans, which included the Don Cossack division. There were no other regular units on this sector of the front at that time. The unfired militias were opposed by selected German units, intoxicated by the successes of the first months of the war.
There, near Kushchevskaya, the Cossacks "bone to bone" met the Germans, at every opportunity imposing hand-to-hand combat on them. The Germans, however, did not like melee, but the Cossacks, on the contrary, loved. It was their nature. “Well, where else can we have Christ with the Hans, except in close combat?” they joked. From time to time (unfortunately, not very often) fate gave them such an opportunity, and then hundreds of corpses in gray overcoats covered the place of the fight...
Near Kushchevskaya, the Don and Kuban held the line for two days. In the end, the Germans' nerves burst, and with the support of artillery and aviation, they decided on a psychic attack. It was a strategic mistake. The Cossacks let them within a grenade throw and met them with heavy fire. The father and son of the Nedorubovs were nearby: the elder watered the attackers from a machine gun, the younger sent one grenade after another into the German line.
No wonder they say - the bullet is afraid of the brave - despite the fact that the air was buzzing from bullets, not one of them touched the shooters. And the whole space in front of the embankment was strewn with corpses in gray overcoats. But the Germans were determined to go all the way. In the end, skillfully maneuvering, they were able to bypass the Cossacks from two sides, squeezing them into their "branded" pincers. Assessing the situation, Nedorubov once again stepped towards death. "Cossacks, forward for the Motherland, for Stalin, for the free Don!" - the battle cry of the lieutenant tore off the villagers who were lying under the bullets from the ground. “Nedorub together with his son again went to seek his death, well, we flew after him,” the surviving colleagues recalled that famous battle near Kushchevskaya. “Because it was shameful to leave him alone…”.
The militia fought to the death. Sons took an example from their fathers, who looked up to the commander. They believed him, respected his combat experience, endurance. Years later, in his letter to the head of the department "Battle of Stalingrad" State Museum defense of I. M. Loginov, Nedorubov, describing the battle near Kushchevskaya, noted that when he had to repel superior enemy forces on the right flank of the squadron, he and his son with hand grenades "waged an unequal three-hour battle in close proximity to the Nazis" . Konstantin Nedorubov many times rose to his full height on the line railway and point-blank shot at the Nazis. “Thus, out of three wars, I never had to shoot an enemy. I myself could hear my bullets clicking on Hitler's heads.
In that battle, together with their son, they destroyed more than 72 Germans. The fourth cavalry squadron rushed hand to hand and destroyed more than 200 German soldiers and officers.
If we didn’t cover the flank, it would be difficult for the neighbor, ”Konstantin Iosifovich recalled. - And so we gave him the opportunity to retreat without loss ... How my lads stood! And the son of Kolka that day showed himself well done. Didn't screw up. It was only after this fight that I thought I would never see him again.
During the furious mortar shelling, Nikolai Nedorubov was seriously wounded in both legs, arms and other parts of the body. He lay in the forest belt for about three days. Not far from the forest plantation, women were passing by, and they heard a groan. Women in the dark carried a seriously wounded young Cossack to the village of Kushchevskaya, and hid him for many weeks.
"Cossack conscientiousness" then cost the Germans dearly - in that battle, the Don people ground over 200 German soldiers and officers. Plans to encircle the squadron were mixed with dust. The commander of the group, Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm List, received an encrypted radiogram signed by the Fuhrer himself: “Another Kushchevka will repeat, do not learn to fight, you will march in a penal company through the Caucasus Mountains period.”
“We hallucinated as Cossacks…”
This is exactly what one of the German infantrymen, who survived the battle near Maratuk, wrote in his letter home, where Nedorubov’s Dons got to the coveted hand-to-hand combat and, as a result, as well as near Kushchevskaya, slaughtered over two hundred German soldiers and officers in close combat. For the squadron, this figure has become a trademark. “You can’t lower the bar lower,” the Cossacks joked, “why aren’t we Stakhanovites?”
"Nedorubovtsy" participated in raids on the enemy in the area of the farms Pobeda and Biryuchy, fought in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Kurinskaya ... According to the Germans who survived after the horse attacks, "these centaurs seemed to be possessed by a demon."
Donets and Kuban used all the numerous tricks that were accumulated by their ancestors in previous wars and carefully passed down from generation to generation. When the lava piled on the enemy, there was a drawn-out wolf howl in the air - so the villagers intimidated the enemy from afar. Already within the line of sight, they were engaged in vaulting - they spun in their saddles, often hanging from them, depicting the dead, and a few meters from the enemy they suddenly came to life and broke into the enemy’s location, chopping right and left and arranging a bloody heap there.
In any fight, Nedorubov himself, contrary to all the canons of military science, was the first to go on the rampage. In one battle, he managed, speaking in official military language, "using the folds of the terrain, to secretly get close to three machine-gun and two mortar nests of the enemy and extinguish them with hand grenades." During this, the Cossack was wounded, but did not leave the battlefield. As a result, the height, studded with enemy firing points, sowing fire and death around them, was taken with minimal losses. According to the most conservative estimates, Nedorubov himself personally destroyed more than 70 soldiers and officers during these battles.
The battles in the south of Russia did not pass without a trace for the guards of Lieutenant K.I. Nedorubova. Only in the terrible battles near Kushchevskaya he received eight bullet wounds. Then there were two more wounds. After the third, difficult, at the end of 1942, the conclusion of the medical commission turned out to be inexorable: "I am not fit for military service."
During the period of hostilities for the accomplished feats, Nedorubov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner and various medals. On October 26, 1943, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, the Knight of St. George Konstantin Nedorubov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. “Our Konstantin Iosifovich made the Red Star related to the St. George Cross,” the villagers joked about this.
Despite the fact that even during his lifetime he became a living legend, the Cossack Nedorubov did not acquire any special benefits and assets for himself and his family in peaceful life. But for all the holidays he regularly put on the Golden Star of the Hero along with four St. George's crosses.
The cadet of the 1st Don Cossack division, Nedorubov, with his attitude to awards, proved that power and the Motherland are completely different things. He did not understand why it was impossible to wear royal awards received for victories over a foreign enemy. About the “crosses” he said: “I walked in the front row at the Victory Parade in this form. And at the reception, Comrade Stalin himself shook his hand, thanked him for participating in two wars.
On October 15, 1967, a participant in three wars, the Don Cossack Nedorubov joined the torch-bearing group of three veterans and lit the fire of Eternal Glory at the monument-ensemble to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad on the Mamaev Kurgan of the hero city of Volgograd. Nedorubov died on December 11, 1978. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya. In September 2007, in the city of Volgograd, in the memorial and historical museum, a monument was opened to the famous hero of the Don, the full Knight of St. George, Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubov. On February 2, 2011, in the village of Yuzhny, the hero city of Volgograd, the grand opening ceremony of the new state educational institution “Volgograd Cadet (Cossack) Corps named after the Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubov.
According to the materials of "Rus Triune"
Viktor Starchikov
21.05.1889 - 13.12.1978
The hero of the USSR
Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich - squadron commander of the 41st Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment of the 11th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Division of the 5th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Corps of the North Caucasian Front, guard lieutenant.
He was born on May 21 (June 2), 1889, on the Rubezhny farm of the Berezovskaya village of the Ust-Medveditsky District of the Don Cossack Region, now part of the Lovyagin farm of the Danilovsky District of the Volgograd Region. From a family of a hereditary Cossack. Russian. In 1900 he graduated from three classes of rural elementary school. He was engaged in farming.
In 1911, he was called up for military service in the Russian Imperial Army, served in the 15th Cossack Regiment of the 1st Don Cossack Division of the 14th Army Corps (Warsaw Military District), the regiment was stationed in the city of Tomashev, Petrokovsky province of the Kingdom of Poland. Since August 1914 - a participant in the First World War, fought throughout the war as part of his regiment on the Southwestern and Romanian fronts. Became head of the intelligence team. He distinguished himself many times in daring sorties behind enemy lines, in capturing prisoners, in defensive and offensive battles. In one of the night sorties, he captured and delivered 52 captured Austrian soldiers with an officer to their positions, in another, at the head of the group, he captured the enemy headquarters. He was awarded four St. George's crosses (full St. George's Cavalier) and two St. George's medals. The last military rank is a cadet.
In 1917 he was seriously wounded, was treated in hospitals in Kyiv, Kharkov, at the Sebryakovo station near Tsaritsyn. In early 1918 he returned to his native farm. But it was not possible to engage in arable farming - the Don was already raging Civil War. At the beginning of the summer of 1918, he was mobilized into the White Don Army of General P.N. Krasnov, enrolled in the 18th Cossack regiment. He took part in the battles on the side of the white troops. In July 1918 he was taken prisoner and on August 1, 1918 he was enrolled in the Red Army.
Appointed Squadron Leader of the 23rd rifle division, participant in the defense of Tsaritsyn. At the beginning of 1919, he was again captured, now to the Whites (according to some reports, he deserted), again enlisted in the White units. Since June 1919, again in the Red Army, squadron commander of the cavalry division named after M.F. Blinov in the 9th, 1st Cavalry and 2nd Cavalry armies. At one time in 1920 he temporarily served as commander of the 8th Taman Cavalry Regiment. Participant in hostilities on the Don, in the Kuban and in the Crimea. Was badly wounded. In 1921 he was demobilized.
He returned to his native farm, worked as an individual peasant. From July 1929 - chairman of the Loginov collective farm in the Stalingrad region. From March 1930 - Deputy Chairman of the Berezovsky District Executive Committee. Since January 1931 - controller in the Serebryakovsky inter-district branch of the Zagotzerno trust in the Stalingrad region. Since April 1932 - the foreman (according to some sources - the chairman) of the collective farm on the Bobrov farm in the Berezovsky district.
In 1933 he was arrested and on July 7, 1933 sentenced to 10 years in labor camps under article 109 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (abuse of power or official position) - allowed collective farmers to use a few kilograms of grain remaining after sowing for food. For three years he worked on the construction of the Moscow-Volga Canal in Dmitrovlag. In 1936, he was released ahead of schedule for shock work.
Returning to his homeland, he continued to work as a storekeeper, foreman, head of the horse-post station, supply manager of the machine and tractor station.
To the beginning of the Great Patriotic War He was not subject to conscription because of his age (52 years). Nevertheless, in October 1941, he achieved enrollment as a volunteer in the cavalry division of the people's militia formed in the city of Uryupinsk from volunteer Cossacks. The Cossacks-militias chose him as the commander of the squadron of the Berezovsky district. A month later, K.I. Nedorubov with his squadron joined the Mikhailovsky combined regiment of the Don Cossack cavalry division, in January 1942 the division was renamed the 15th Don Cossack cavalry division, and the 3rd regiment, which included K.I. Nedorubov - in the 42nd Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment. In the spring of 1942, having completed its formation, the division was redeployed from near Stalingrad to the Salsk region and became part of the North Caucasian Front. Since July 1942, she participated in the hostilities, in August 1942 she was transformed into the 11th Guards Cavalry Division. Member of the CPSU (b) / CPSU since 1942.
Squadron commander of the 41st Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment of the 11th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Division of the 5th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Corps of the North Caucasian Front Guard Lieutenant Nedorubov K.I. showed unparalleled courage and heroism in defensive battles in the Kuban at the initial stage of the battle for the Caucasus. As a result of sudden raids on the enemy on July 28 and 29, 1942 in the area of the Pobeda and Biryuchy farms of the Azov region of the Rostov region, on August 2, 1942 near the village of Kushchevskaya in the Kushchev region of the Krasnodar Territory, on September 5, 1942 in the area of the village of Kurinskaya in the Apsheron region of the Krasnodar Territory and on October 16 1942 - near the village of Maratuki, his squadron destroyed up to 800 enemy soldiers and officers. On the personal combat account of the squadron commander there were over 100 destroyed enemy soldiers.
So, in the battle on August 2, 1942 for the village of Kushchevskaya, when the Germans captured the positions of the regiment, together with his son, he rushed to the left flank of the squadron. Both fighters fired at close range from machine guns and using grenades, forced the approaching enemy to lie down, after which Nedorubov raised the squadron to attack. In hand-to-hand combat, the enemy was driven back.
He performed a similar feat in the battle on October 16, 1942 for the village of Maratuki - after repelling four enemy attacks, he raised a squadron in a counterattack and threw it back in hand-to-hand combat with great damage - up to 200 soldiers. He was wounded twice in battles on September 5 and October 16, and in the last battle he was seriously wounded.
For the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the German invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 26, 1943 to the guard lieutenant Nedorubov Konstantin Iosifovich He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
After a serious wound, he was treated in hospitals in Sochi and Tbilisi. Since December 1943, the captain Nedorubov K.I. - in reserve for injury. Lived in the village of Berezovskaya, Danilovsky district, Volgograd region. He worked as the head of the regional department of social security, the head of the regional department of road construction, the secretary of the party bureau of the forestry, was elected a deputy of the regional council of workers' deputies. Died December 13, 1978. He was buried in the village of Berezovskaya.
Captain of the Guard (1943). He was awarded 2 Orders of Lenin (including 10/25/1943), the Order of the Red Banner (09/6/1942), the St. George Cross 1st (1917), 2nd (1916), 3rd (11/16/1915) and 4 -th (10/20/1915) degree, medals, including 2 St. George medals "For Courage" (including 1916).
Honorary citizen of the village of Berezovskaya, Volgograd region.
In September 2007, in the hero-city of Volgograd, a monument to the full Knight of St. George and Hero of the Soviet Union K.I. Nedorubov. The name of the Hero was given to the Volgograd Cadet (Cossack) Corps. The streets in the village of Berezovskaya in the Volgograd Region and in the city of Khadyzhensk in the Krasnodar Territory are also named after the Hero.
The biography was supplemented by Anton Bocharov (Koltsovo village, Novosibirsk region).
From the notes of a war correspondent:
Under Kushchevka, the Kuban, overwhelmed by the encirclement, rushed into the breakthrough - into the German tanks of General Kleist. With the fury of the “doomed”, as the allied columnist Gold wrote about them in his first sensation, the Cossacks, bending in their saddles, smashed the tanks with grenades, burned them with bottles of a fiery mixture, and themselves, slain, at a gallop, fell either under the caterpillars or under the hooves horses neighing in pain and horror ... In that battle, fellow countryman Dudak - the St. George Knight of all four degrees Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov with his son Nikolai cut off seventy hated Germans from a machine-gun cart "Maxim".
Countrymen met at a rally of veterans of the corps, where they arrived with their sons. “It was not the “doomed”, but the winners who met, although the final victory is still far away,” Dorogov wrote about them. Nedorubov and Dudak, both tall and still strong as half a century-old oak trees, embraced and, weaving a forked beard with drooping mustaches, kissed three times. And while their sons, Romka and Nikolai, according to tradition, as befits the lads, measured their strength, the fathers, looking at each other, talked about the war.
No way, Osipych, related his Georgiev to the Star ?! - Respectfully and in surprise, pointing his finger under the forked beard of his countryman, at his steep chest with gold and silver crosses gleaming under the Golden Star of the Hero, Ostap Ivanovich asked with involuntary envy.
Parent, Ostap! How ... Although our Race is now under the Star, but we also can’t forget about George the Victorious, while the same enemy tramples her, mother, - Nedorubov boomed and, screwing up his bulging eye on Dudak’s shepherd’s chest, asked in turn: - And where are your Georges?..
Ostap Ivanovich grunted, looked around at his Romka:
From, bisov son, sho done! “Take off, says dad, your old-fashioned crosses before we, Komsomol members, condemn you!” From I also obeyed, bisovyh sons... - he explained sadly.
Since then, the Kopytins more than once passed from one Cossack corps to another, and wherever the Dudaki rumbled with their machine-gun cart, Ostap Ivanovich remembered Nedorubov ...
Tokarev K.A. "Buda is thirsty." Notes of a war correspondent. - M.: "Moscow worker", 1971, p. 36-37
From the memories of a veteran
“Our 42nd Cavalry Regiment was the first to enter the combat area,” wrote K. I. Nedorubov in his autobiography. - July 29, at dawn, we were in the area of the Samara farm, but could not preempt the enemy. Meanwhile, the enemy, having shot down the outposts of the 30th Infantry Division, crossed the Kagalnik River and occupied three large settlements on its banks. Assessing the current situation, divisional commander S.I. Gorshkov decided to restore the lost positions. The implementation of this difficult task was entrusted to the 42nd cavalry regiment, against which about 2 infantry regiments acted ... "
Acting on foot, the cavalrymen of the 42nd regiment and Nedorubov's squadron pushed the Nazis to the Kagalnik River. The soldiers of the 1st squadron broke into the Zadonsky farm, the 2nd - into Aleksandrovka, the 3rd. in the village of Pobeda. Fierce street fighting ensued.
Fights with the enemy lasted all day. And although the 42nd regiment failed to push the enemy to the other side of the river, its squadrons achieved significant success. By evening, the Nazis brought fresh forces into battle and again pushed back parts of the regiment to the southern outskirts of those captured by the Cossacks. settlements.
After a series of powerful enemy attacks, the Don Cossack Division was withdrawn for reorganization. By the end of July 31, parts of it received an order to go to the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Kushchevskaya. Commander S.I. Gorshkov decided to knock out the enemy with a night raid.
“The battles for Kushchevskaya were so fierce that the attacks often ended in hand-to-hand combat,” Konstantin Iosifovich wrote in his autobiography. “By the end of August 1, our 42nd cavalry regiment captured the southeastern outskirts of the village, and the other two regiments captured the southern and western outskirts and the station, but they could not completely take the village ... "
Together with units of the 12th Cavalry Division, Colonel Gorshkov's horsemen occupied the village of Kushchevskaya. The battle for the village lasted all day. The 42nd mountain infantry division of the enemy lost 500 soldiers and officers. However, yielding to the enemy in manpower and equipment, the 15th Cavalry Division was forced to go on the defensive. A critical situation also developed in the sector of the 42nd cavalry regiment, in which K. I. Nedorubov fought with the squadron.
The soldiers of the regiment steadfastly repulsed the continuous attacks of the enemy until the enemy managed to reach the left flank. There was a threat of encirclement.
Noticing this, Lieutenant Nedorubov arrived at the breakthrough site along with his son. Armed with machine guns, with a large supply of grenades, they shot the Nazis almost point-blank, throwing grenades at them. The enemy is down. And then K.I.'s command was heard over the battlefield. Nedorubova: "Cossacks, forward for the Motherland, for Stalin, for the free Don." Having led the squadron, K. I. Nedorubov led him to counterattack.
A fierce hand-to-hand fight ensued. Cossack militias destroyed 200 German soldiers and officers. The enemy attack was thwarted. Risking their lives, Konstantin Iosifovich and his son Nikolai saved the day.