July 17, 1941, Sokolnichi, near Krichev, the Germans were burying an unknown Russian soldier in the evening. Yes, this Soviet soldier was buried by the enemy. With honours. Much later it turned out that it was the gun commander of the 137th rifle division 13th Army Senior Sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin.

In the summer of 1941, the 4th Panzer Division of Heinz Guderian, one of the most talented German tank generals, broke through to the Belarusian town of Krichev. Parts of the 13th Soviet Army retreated. Only the gunner Kolya Sirotinin did not retreat - just a boy, short, quiet, frail. He had just turned 19 at the time. Nicholas volunteered. The second was the commander himself. Kolya took up a position on a hill right on the collective farm field. The cannon sank in the high rye, but he could clearly see the highway and the bridge over the Dobrost River. When the lead tank reached the bridge, Kolya knocked it out with the first shot. The second shell set fire to an armored personnel carrier that closed the column, creating a traffic jam.

It is still not entirely clear why Kolya was left alone in the field. But there are versions. He, apparently, just had a task - to create a “cork” on the bridge, knocking out the head car of the Nazis. The lieutenant was at the bridge and corrected the fire, and then, apparently, called for a traffic jam from German tanks fire from our other artillery. Because of the river. It is authentically known that the lieutenant was wounded and then he left in the direction of our positions. There is an assumption that Kolya was supposed to go to his own after completing the task. But ... he had 60 shells. And he stayed!

Two tanks tried to pull the lead tank off the bridge, but were also hit. The armored car tried to cross the river Dobrost not on the bridge. But she got bogged down in the swampy shore, where another shell found her. Kolya fired and fired, knocking out tank after tank...
Guderian's tanks ran into Kolya Sirotinin, as if into the Brest Fortress. Already burned 11 tanks and 7 armored personnel carriers 57 soldiers were killed! The fact that more than half of them were burned by Sirotinin alone is for sure (artillery from across the river also got some). For almost two hours of this strange battle, the Germans could not understand where the Russian battery had dug in. And when they reached Kolya's position, they were very surprised that there was only one gun. Nikolay had only three shells left. They offered to surrender. Kolya responded by firing at them from a carbine.

After the battle, Lieutenant of the 4th Panzer Division Henfeld wrote in his diary: “July 17, 1941. Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening they buried an unknown Russian soldier. He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was surprised at his courage ... Oberst (colonel) before the grave said that if all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?

In the afternoon, the Germans gathered at the place where the gun stood. We, the locals, were also forced to come there, - recalls Verzhbitskaya. - To me, as knowing German, the chief German with orders ordered to translate. He said that this is how a soldier should defend his homeland - Fatherland. Then, from the pocket of our killed soldier's tunic, they took out a medallion with a note about who and where. The chief German told me: “Take it and write to your relatives. Let a mother know what a hero her son was and how he died.” I was afraid to do this ... Then, standing in the grave and covering the body of Sirotinin with a Soviet raincoat, a young German officer tore out a piece of paper and a medallion from me and said something rudely. For a long time after the funeral, the Nazis stood by the cannon and the grave in the middle of the collective farm field, not without admiration counting shots and hits.
Today, in the village of Sokolnichi, there is no grave in which the Germans buried Kolya. Three years after the war, the remains of Kolya were transferred to a mass grave, the field was plowed up and sown, the cannon was handed over for salvage. And he was called a hero only 19 years after the feat.

Despite the fact that the heroism of Sirotinin was recognized back in 1960 thanks to the efforts of the Archive staff Soviet army, he was not awarded the title of Hero of the USSR. A painfully ridiculous circumstance prevented him: the soldier’s family did not have his photograph. The photo card was necessary for the submission of documents. As a result, a person who gave his life for his country is little known in his Fatherland and was awarded only the Order Patriotic War first degree.

Photo: Obelisk in place last fight Nikolai Sirotinin July 17, 1941. Nearby, on a pedestal, a real 76-mm gun was hoisted - Sirotinin fired at enemies from a similar gun

In July 1941, the Red Army retreated with fighting. In the Krichev area (Mogilev region), the 4th Panzer Division of Heinz Guderian advanced deep into Soviet territory, and the 6th Rifle Division opposed it.

On July 10, an artillery battery of a rifle division entered the village of Sokolnichi, located three kilometers from Krichev. One of the guns was commanded by 20-year-old senior sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin.

In anticipation of the onset of the enemy, the fighters whiled away the time in the village. Sirotinin with the fighters settled in the house of Anastasia Grabskaya.

And one warrior in the field

The approaching cannonade, coming from the direction of Mogilev, and the columns of refugees marching east along the Warsaw highway, indicated that the enemy was approaching.
It is not entirely clear why senior sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin remained alone at his gun during the battle. According to one version, he volunteered to cover the retreat of fellow soldiers across the Sozh River. But it is reliably known that he equipped a position for a cannon on the outskirts of the village so that the road through the bridge could be shot through.

The 76 mm gun was well camouflaged in the tall rye. July 17 at the 476th kilometer Warsaw highway a column of enemy vehicles appeared. Sirotinin opened fire. This is how this battle was described by the employees of the archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense (T. Stepanchuk and N. Tereshchenko) in the Ogonyok magazine for 1958.

- Ahead is an armored personnel carrier, behind it are trucks full of soldiers. The camouflaged cannon hit the column. An armored personnel carrier burst into flames, several crumpled trucks fell into ditches. Several armored personnel carriers and a tank crawled out of the forest. Nikolai knocked out a tank. Trying to get around the tank, two armored personnel carriers got bogged down in a swamp ... Nikolai himself brought ammunition, directed, loaded and prudently sent shells into the thick of enemies.

Finally, the Nazis discovered where the fire was coming from, and brought down all their might on a lone gun. Nikolai died. When the Nazis saw that only one person was fighting, they were stunned. Shocked by the bravery of the warrior, the Nazis buried the soldier.

Before lowering the body into the grave, they searched Sirotinin and found a medallion in his pocket, and in it a note with his name and place of residence written. This fact became known after the archive staff went to the battlefield and conducted a survey of local residents. Local resident Olga Verzhbitskaya knew German and on the day of the battle, on the orders of the Germans, she translated what was written on a piece of paper enclosed in a medallion. Thanks to her (and 17 years have passed since the battle at that time), we managed to find out the name of the hero.

Verzhbitskaya reported the name and surname of the soldier, as well as the fact that he lived in the city of Orel.
It should be noted that the employees of the Moscow archive arrived in the Belarusian village thanks to a letter addressed to them from the local historian Mikhail Melnikov. He wrote that in the village he heard about the feat of an artilleryman who fought alone against the Nazis, which amazed the enemy.

Further investigation led historians to the city of Orel, where in 1958 they managed to meet the parents of Nikolai Sirotinin. Thus, the details of short life boy.

He was drafted into the army on October 5, 1940 from the Tekmash plant, where he worked as a turner. He began his service in the 55th Infantry Regiment of the Belarusian city of Polotsk. Among five children, Nikolai was the second oldest.
“Affectionate, hard-working, he helped to nurse the younger ones,” his mother Elena Korneevna said about him.

So, thanks to the local historian and the not indifferent employees of the Moscow archive in the USSR, it became known about the feat of the hero-artilleryman. It was obvious that he delayed the advance of the enemy column and inflicted losses on him. That's just specific information about the number of dead Nazis was not known.

Later there were reports that 11 tanks, 6 armored personnel carriers and 57 enemy soldiers were destroyed. According to one version, some of them were destroyed with the help of artillery fired from across the river.

But be that as it may, the feat of Sirotinin is not measured by the number of tanks he knocked out. One, three or eleven... this case it doesn't matter. The main thing is that the brave guy from Orel fought alone against the German armada, forcing the enemy to suffer losses and tremble with fear.

He could have run, taken refuge in the village, or chosen another path, but he fought to the last drop of his blood. The story of the feat of Nikolai Sirotinin was continued a few years after the article in Ogonyok.

“Still, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?”

In January 1960, Literaturnaya Gazeta published an article entitled "This is not a legend." Local historian Mikhail Melnikov became one of its authors. It was reported there that Oberleutnant Friedrich Henfeld was an eyewitness to the battle on July 17, 1941. His diary was found after Henfeld's death in 1942. Entries from the diary of the chief lieutenant in 1942 were made by military journalist F. Selivanov. Here is a quote from Henfeld's diary:

July 17, 1941. Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening they buried an unknown Russian soldier. He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was amazed at his courage... Oberst (Colonel) before the grave said that if all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?

And here are the memories recorded in the 60s according to Verzhbitskaya:
- In the afternoon, the Germans gathered at the place where the gun stood. We, the locals, were also forced to come there, - recalls Verzhbitskaya. - To me, as knowing German, the chief German with orders ordered to translate. He said that this is how a soldier should defend his homeland - Fatherland. Then, from the pocket of our killed soldier's tunic, they took out a medallion with a note about who and where. The chief German told me: “Take it and write to your relatives. Let a mother know what a hero her son was and how he died.” I was afraid to do it... Then, standing in the grave and covering Sirotinin's body with a Soviet raincoat, a young German officer tore out a piece of paper and a medallion from me and said something rudely. For a long time after the funeral, the Nazis stood at the cannon and the grave in the middle of the collective farm field, not without admiration, counting the shots and hits.

Later, a bowler hat was found at the battle site, on which it was scratched: "Orphans ...".
In 1948, the remains of the hero were reburied in mass grave. After the general public learned about the feat of Sirotinin, he was posthumously, in 1960, awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. And a year later, in 1961, an obelisk was erected at the site of the battle, the inscription on which reports the battle on July 17, 1941. Nearby, a real 76-millimeter gun was hoisted on a pedestal. From a similar gun fired at the enemies of Sirotinin.

Unfortunately, not a single photograph of Nikolai Sirotinin has been preserved. There is only a pencil drawing made by his colleague in the 1990s. But the main thing is that the memory of the brave and fearless boy from Orel, who detained the German convoy of equipment and died in an unequal battle, will remain to the descendants.

Andrey Osmolovsky

In September of this year, Oryol School No. 7 was named after Nikolai Sirotinin. For a long time, his feat, the history of which is well known in the Mogilev region of Belarus, not only was not immortalized in his native land - few people knew about him at all. Yes, and officially - he never became a Hero: the title was not given due to the fact that not a single photograph of a soldier was preserved.

This simple Oryol guy in July 1941 near the Belarusian city of Krichev single-handedly destroyed 11 enemy tanks, 7 armored vehicles and 57 enemy soldiers and officers. During the battle, the Germans could not figure out where the Russian battery had dug in. And when they reached Kolin's position, he had only three shells left. They offered to surrender, but he answered them with a carbine.

"AiF-Chernozemye" tells the story of Nikolai Sirotinin and cites eyewitness accounts and historians.

Nikolai Sirotinin Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Hard to believe

For the first time, the public learned about this rarest case in the history of the Great Patriotic War only in 1957 - from Mikhail Fedorovich Melnikov, a local historian from the Belarusian city of Krichev, who began to collect details of the feat of Nikolai Sirotinin. Not everyone believed that a person was able to stop a column of tanks alone, but the more information they managed to get, the more authentic the evidence of the guy's feat became.

Today we can say with confidence that the 19-year-old guy Kolya Sirotinin really alone covered the retreat Soviet troops, not for a second letting the enemy down.

From book Gennady Mayorova"Square of Artillerymen":

“On July 10, 1941, our artillery battery arrived in the village of Sokolnichi, which was located three kilometers from the city of Krichev. One of the guns was commanded by a young artilleryman Nikolai. He chose a firing position on the outskirts of the village. In one evening, the entire crew dug an artillery trench, and then two more spare ones, niches for shells and shelters for people. The battery commander and artilleryman Nikolai settled in the Grabskys' house.

“At that time I worked at the main post office of Krichev,” she recalled. Maria Grabskaya.-After the end of the shift, I came to my house, we had guests, including Nikolai Sirotinin, whom I met. Kolya told me that he was from the Oryol region and that his father was a railroad worker. They dug a trench with their comrades, and when it was ready, everyone dispersed. Nikolai said that he was on duty and you can sleep peacefully: "If something happens, I'll knock on you." Suddenly, early in the morning, he knocked so hard that the whole window was blown out. We picked up and hid in a trench. This is where the fight began. Next to our hut was a collective farm, where a cannon was installed. Nicholas did not leave his post until his last breath. German cars, armored personnel carriers, tanks drove along the highway, which was 200-250 meters from the gun. He let them get very close, hiding behind the gun shield himself. And when the gun fell silent, we thought he had run away. A little later, the Germans gathered all of us, the villagers, and asked: “Mother, whose son was killed?” They buried Nicholas themselves, wrapping him in a tent.”

July 17, 1941 German tank column moved along the Moscow-Warsaw highway. Our units have already left Krichev and retreated across the Sozh River. The 409th regiment of the 137th rifle division took up defensive positions near the highway with the task of covering the retreating troops. When the tanks approached the village of Sokolnichi, to the bridge over the swampy river Dobrost, a camouflaged artillery gun suddenly came to life near the bridge. With the first shots, it set fire to the lead tank and the trailing armored vehicle. The column stopped. One tank tried to break through and crush the gun, but was shot at close range. Cars could not turn off the highway, as a swamp stretched around. Without stopping for a minute, the gun fired accurately and frequently. A long line of tanks and armored personnel carriers blazed. Through the black smoke that enveloped the column, the vehicles randomly fired at the Soviet gun. Taking the enemy by surprise, Nikolai could have left the position, since his main mission had been completed and time had been won. But he continued to stand to the last, until he was killed.

An example to follow

Tanks and armored personnel carriers burned down near the bridge, corpses lay. The wounded were loaded into ambulances. In a nearby birch forest, the Germans dug 57 graves for their dead in this duel with a Russian artilleryman. It seemed that a squadron of Soviet attack aircraft swept over the tank column. The Germans crowded around the broken cannon, everyone wanted to look into the face of this extraordinary soldier. The Nazis were just starting a war with Russia and did not yet know what a Soviet fighter was. In the presence of specially rounded up villagers, the invaders buried the artilleryman with honors.

From a diary German Lieutenant Friedrich Henfeld:

July 17, 1941. Sokolniki near Krichev. In the evening they buried a Russian unknown soldier. He alone, standing at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone marveled at his courage. It is not clear why he resisted so much, he was still doomed to death. The colonel in front of the grave said that if the soldiers of the Fuhrer were like that, they would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. Still, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?

A few months later, Friedrich Henfeld was killed near Tula. His diary came to the military journalist Fyodor Selivanov. After rewriting part of it, Selivanov handed over the diary to the army headquarters, and kept the extract.

A resident of the village of Sokolnichi, Krichevsky district, Mogilev region, Olga Borisovna Verzhbitskaya she recalled that after the funeral, the German chief told her (the woman knew German): “Take this document and write to your relatives. Let a mother know what a hero her son was and how he died.” But a young German officer who was standing at the grave of Sirotinin came up and snatched a piece of paper and a medallion from her, saying something rude. The Germans fired a volley of rifles in honor of our soldier and put a cross on the grave, on which they hung his helmet, pierced by a bullet.

Today, in the village of Sokolnichi, there is no grave in which the Germans buried Nicholas. Three years after the war, the remains of Kolya were transferred to a mass grave, the field was plowed up and sown, the cannon was handed over for salvage.

Didn't get a Hero

Mass grave in Krichev on Sirotinin street. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

In 1960, Nikolai Sirotinin was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, which is kept in the Minsk Museum. He was also presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but he never received it - the only photograph in which Kolya was captured was lost during the war. Without it, the title of hero was not given.

Here's what I remember about it sister of Nikolai Sirotinin Taisiya Shestakova:“We had his only passport card. But in the evacuation in Mordovia, my mother gave it to be enlarged. And the master lost it! He brought completed orders to all our neighbors, but not to us. We were very sad. We learned about the brother's feat in 1961, when local historians from Krichev found Kolya's grave. We went to Belarus with the whole family. The Krichevites were busy to present Kolya to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Only in vain, since his photograph, at least some kind, was definitely needed for paperwork. But we don't have it!"

Everyone who has heard about this story is very surprised by one important fact. In the Republic of Belarus, everyone knows about the feat of the Oryol soldier. A monument was erected to him there, a street in the city of Krichev and a kindergarten school in Sokolnichi were named after him. In Orel, until recently, few people knew about the feat of a fellow countryman. The memory of him was kept only by a small exhibition in the museum of school No. 17, where Kolya once studied, and memorial plaque on the house where he lived and from where he went to the army. At the initiative of representatives of the Oryol Union of Journalists, it was proposed to perpetuate the forgotten or almost unknown feats of artillery heroes on one of the streets of the city. They also proposed a project for a commemorative plate, on which would be told legendary story Nikolai Sirotinin, and in the future the square was to be replenished with new plates with photographs and names of heroes and a brief annotation of their exploits. But the city authorities decided to change the idea and instead of the original project, a cannon was installed in the Artillerymen's square, assuring that after the opening a competition among designers for the second stage would be announced to organize the adjacent space and create new information elements. A year has passed since that moment, but on the site of the Artillerymen's square, only a cannon remains alone.

During the years of the Great Patriotic War, not much was known about the incredible feat of a simple Russian soldier Kolka Sirotinin, as well as about the hero himself. Perhaps no one would have ever known about the feat of a twenty-year-old artilleryman. If not for one case.

In the summer of 1942, an officer of the 4th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht, Friedrich Fenfeld, died near Tula. Soviet soldiers discovered his diary. From its pages, some details of that very last battle of Senior Sergeant Sirotinin became known.

It was the 25th day of the war ...

In the summer of 1941, the 4th tank division of the Guderian group, one of the most talented German generals. Parts of the 13th Soviet Army were forced to retreat. To cover the retreat of the artillery battery of the 55th Infantry Regiment, the commander left artilleryman Nikolai Sirotinin with a gun.

The order was brief: to hold up the German tank column on the bridge over the river Dobrost, and then, if possible, catch up with our own. The senior sergeant carried out only the first half of the order...

Sirotinin took up a position in a field near the village of Sokolnichi. The cannon sank in high rye. There is not a single noticeable landmark for the enemy nearby. But from here the highway and the river were clearly visible.

On the morning of July 17, a column of 59 tanks and armored vehicles with infantry appeared on the highway. When the lead tank reached the bridge, the first - successful - shot rang out. With the second shell, Sirotinin set fire to an armored personnel carrier at the tail of the column, thereby creating a traffic jam. Nikolai fired and fired, knocking out car after car.

Sirotinin fought alone, he was both a gunner and a loader. He had 60 shells in his ammunition load and a 76-millimeter cannon - an excellent weapon against tanks. And he made a decision: to continue the battle until the ammunition runs out.

The Nazis rushed to the ground in a panic, not understanding where the shooting was coming from. The guns were fired at random, in squares. Indeed, on the eve of their intelligence could not detect Soviet artillery in the vicinity, and the division advanced without any special precautions. The Germans made an attempt to clear the blockage by pulling the wrecked tank off the bridge with two other tanks, but they were also knocked out. The armored car, which tried to ford the river, got bogged down in the swampy bank, where it was destroyed. For a long time the Germans failed to determine the location of the well-camouflaged gun; they believed that a whole battery was fighting them.

This unique battle lasted a little over two hours. The crossing was blocked. By the time Nikolai's position was discovered, he had only three shells left. Sirotinin refused the offer to surrender and fired from a carbine to the last. Having entered the rear of Sirotinin on motorcycles, the Germans destroyed a lone gun with mortar fire. At the position they found a lone cannon and a soldier.

The result of the battle of Senior Sergeant Sirotinin against General Guderian is impressive: after the battle on the banks of the Dobrost River, the Nazis lost 11 tanks, 7 armored vehicles, 57 soldiers and officers.

The stamina of the Soviet fighter aroused the respect of the Nazis. The commander of the tank battalion, Colonel Erich Schneider, ordered to bury a worthy enemy with military honors.

From the diary of Lieutenant Friedrich Hönfeld of the 4th Panzer Division:

July 17, 1941. Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening they buried an unknown Russian soldier. He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was amazed at his bravery… Oberst (colonel – editorial note) said in front of the grave that if all the Fuhrer’s soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?

From the testimony of Olga Verzhbitskaya, a resident of the village of Sokolnichi:

I, Verzhbitskaya Olga Borisovna, born in 1889, a native of Latvia (Latgale), lived before the war in the village of Sokolnichi, Krichevsky district, together with my sister.

We knew Nikolai Sirotinin and his sister until the day of the battle. He was with my friend, bought milk. He was very polite, always helping older women to get water from the well and in other hard work.

I remember well the evening before the fight. On a log at the gate of the Grabsky house, I saw Nikolai Sirotinin. He sat and thought about something. I was very surprised that everyone was leaving, and he was sitting.

When the fight started, I was not at home yet. I remember how tracer bullets flew. He walked for about two or three hours. In the afternoon, the Germans gathered at the place where the Sirotinin gun stood. We, the locals, were also forced to come there. As someone who knows German, the chief German of about fifty with orders, tall, bald, gray-haired, ordered me to translate his speech to local people. He said that the Russian fought very well, that if the Germans had fought like that, they would have taken Moscow long ago, that this is how a soldier should defend his homeland - fatherland.

Then a medallion was taken out of the pocket of our dead soldier's tunic. I remember firmly that it was written there “the city of Orel”, to Vladimir Sirotinin (I don’t remember his patronymic), that the name of the street was, as I remember, not Dobrolyubova, but Freight or Lomovaya, I remember that the house number was two digits. But we could not know who this Sirotinin Vladimir was - the father, brother, uncle of the murdered man or someone else - we could not.

The German chief told me: “Take this document and write to your relatives. Let a mother know what a hero her son was and how he died.” Then a young German officer who was standing at the grave of Sirotinin came up and snatched a piece of paper and a medallion from me and said something rudely.

The Germans fired a volley of rifles in honor of our soldier and put a cross on the grave, hung up his helmet, pierced by a bullet.

I myself saw the body of Nikolai Sirotinin well, even when he was lowered into the grave. His face was not covered in blood, but the tunic on the left side had a large blood stain, the helmet was pierced, there were a lot of shell casings lying around.

Since our house was not far from the battlefield, next to the road to Sokolniki, the Germans were standing near us. I myself heard how they spoke for a long time and admiringly about the feat of the Russian soldier, counting the shots and hits. Some of the Germans, even after the funeral, stood at the cannon and the grave for a long time and talked quietly.

February 29, 1960

Testimony of the telephone operator M. I. Grabskaya:

I, Grabskaya Maria Ivanovna, born in 1918, worked as a telephone operator at DEU 919 in Krichev, lived in my native village of Sokolnichi, three kilometers from the city of Krichev.

I remember well the events of July 1941. About a week before the arrival of the Germans, Soviet artillerymen settled in our village. The headquarters of their battery was in our house, the battery commander was a senior lieutenant named Nikolai, his assistant was a lieutenant named Fedya, of the fighters, I remember the Red Army soldier Nikolai Sirotinin the most. The fact is that the senior lieutenant very often called this fighter and entrusted him with both tasks as the most intelligent and experienced.

He was a little above average height, dark brown hair, a simple, cheerful face. When Sirotinin and senior lieutenant Nikolai decided to dig a dugout for the locals, I saw how he deftly threw the earth, noticed that he was apparently not from the boss's family. Nicholas jokingly replied:

“I am a worker from Orel, and I am no stranger to physical labor. We, the Oryols, know how to work.”

Today, in the village of Sokolnichi, there is no grave in which the Germans buried Nikolai Sirotinin. Three years after the war, his remains were transferred to the mass grave of Soviet soldiers in Krichev.

Pencil drawing made from memory by a colleague of Sirotinin in the 1990s

The inhabitants of Belarus remember and honor the feat of the brave artilleryman. In Krichev there is a street named after him, a monument has been erected. But, despite the fact that the feat of Sirotinin, thanks to the efforts of the workers of the Archive of the Soviet Army, was recognized back in 1960, he was not awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A painfully absurd circumstance got in the way: the soldier's family did not have his photograph. And it is necessary to apply for a high rank.

Today there is only a pencil sketch made after the war by one of his colleagues. In the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory, Senior Sergeant Sirotinin was awarded the Order Patriotic war of the first degree. Posthumously. Such is the story.

Memory

In 1948, the remains of Nikolai Sirotinin were reburied in a mass grave (according to the military burial record card on the OBD Memorial website - in 1943), on which a monument was erected in the form of a sculpture of a soldier grieving for his dead comrades, and on the marble boards in the list of the buried is indicated surname Sirotinina N.V.

In 1960, Sirotinin was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class.

In 1961, a monument in the form of an obelisk with the name of the hero was erected at the site of the feat near the highway, next to which a real 76-mm gun was installed on a pedestal. In the city of Krichev, a street is named after Sirotinin.

A memorial plaque with a brief note about N. V. Sirotinin was installed at the Tekmash plant in Orel.

Museum of Military Glory in high school No. 17 of the city of Orel, there are materials dedicated to N. V. Sirotinin.

In 2015, the council of school No. 7 of the city of Orel petitioned for the school to be named after Nikolai Sirotinin. Nikolai's sister, Taisiya Vladimirovna, attended the celebrations. The name for the school was chosen by the students themselves on the basis of their search and information work.

When reporters asked Nikolai's sister why Nikolay volunteered to cover the retreat of the division, Taisiya Vladimirovna replied: "My brother could not have done otherwise."

The feat of Kolka Sirotinin is an example of loyalty to the Motherland for all our youth.

The war with the German invaders claimed the lives of millions of Soviet people, slaughtering a colossal number of men, women, children and the elderly. horror fascist attack experienced by every inhabitant of our vast country. An unexpected offensive, the latest weapons, experienced soldiers - Germany had it all. Why did the brilliant plan "Barbarossa" failed?

The enemy did not take into account one very important detail: he was advancing on Soviet Union, whose inhabitants were ready to die for every scrap native land. Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians and other nationalities of the Soviet state fought together for their Motherland and died for the free future of their descendants. One of these brave and valiant soldiers was Nikolai Sirotinin.

A young resident of the city of Orel worked at a local industrial complex"Tekmash", and already on the day of the attack was wounded during the bombardment. As a result of the first air raid, the young man was sent to the hospital. The wound was not severe, and the young body quickly recovered, and Sirotinin's desire to fight remained. Little is known about the hero, even the exact date of his birth is lost. At the beginning of the century, it was not customary to solemnly celebrate every birthday, and some citizens simply did not know it, but only remembered a year.

And Nikolai Vladimirovich was born in difficult times in 1921. It is also known from the testimonies of contemporaries and comrades that he was modest, polite, short and thin. There are very few documents about this great man, and the events at the 476th kilometer of the Warsaw highway became known, largely thanks to the diary of Friedrich Hoenfeld. It was the German chief lieutenant of the 4th Panzer Division who wrote down in his notebook the story of the heroic deed of a Russian soldier:

July 17, 1941. Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening they buried an unknown Russian soldier. He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was surprised at his courage ... Oberst (colonel) before the grave said that if all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?»

Immediately after the hospital, Sirotinin ended up in the 55th Rifle Regiment, which was based near the small Soviet town of Krichev. Here he was assigned as a gunner, which, judging by further developments, obviously Sirotinin succeeded. The regiment remained on the river with the entertaining name "Goodness" for about two weeks, but the decision to retreat, nevertheless, was made.

Nikolai Sirotinin remembered local residents very polite and responsive person. According to Verzhbitskaya, he always helped the elderly carry water or scoop it from the well. It is unlikely that anyone could see in this young senior sergeant a brave hero capable of stopping tank division. However, he still became one.

To withdraw the troops, cover was needed, which is why Sirotinin remained in position. According to one of the many versions, the soldier was supported by his commander and also stayed, but he was wounded in battle and went to the main team. Sirotinin was supposed to create a traffic jam on the bridge and join his own, but this young man decided to stand to the end in order to give his brother-soldiers maximum time to retreat. The goal of the young fighter was simple, he wanted to carry as much as possible more lives enemy army and disable all equipment.

The location of the only 76-mm gun, from which the attackers were fired, was well thought out. The gunner was surrounded by a thick field of rye, and the gun was not visible. Tanks and armored vehicles, accompanied by armed infantry, quickly moved through the territory under the leadership of the talented Heinz Guderian. It was still the period when the Germans hoped for a lightning-fast seizure of the country and the defeat of the Soviet troops.

Their hopes were dashed thanks to such warriors as Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin. Subsequently, the Nazis more than once faced the desperate courage of the Soviet soldiers, and each such feat had a serious demoralizing effect on the German troops. At the end of the war, there were legends about the courage of our soldiers even in the enemy camp.

Sirotinin's task was to prevent the advance of the tank division for the maximum period. The senior sergeant's plan was to block the first and last link of the column and inflict the greatest possible losses on the enemy. The calculation turned out to be correct. When the first tank caught fire, the Germans tried to retreat from the line of fire. However, Sirotinin hit the trailing car, and the column turned out to be an immobilized target.

The Nazis rushed to the ground in a panic, not understanding where the shooting was coming from. Enemy intelligence provided information that there was not a single battery in this area, so the division advanced without any special precautions. Fifty-seven shells were used up by the Soviet soldier not in vain. The tank division was stopped and defeated by one Soviet man. Armored vehicles tried to wade across the rivulet, but were firmly bogged down in coastal silt.

During the entire battle, the Germans did not even suspect that they were faced with only one defender of the USSR. The position of Sirotinin, located at the collective farm cowshed, was taken only after only 3 shells remained. However, even deprived of ammunition for the gun and the ability to continue firing, Nikolai Vladimirovich shot the enemy from a carbine. Only after his death did Sirotinin surrender his position.

The German command and soldiers were horrified when they realized that only one Russian soldier opposed them. Sirotinin's behavior caused genuine delight and respect among the Germans, including Guderian., despite the fact that the losses of the division were huge.

The enemy lost eleven tanks and seven armored personnel carriers. As a result of the shelling of the enemy, 57 soldiers were out of action.
One man was worth an entire panzer division, no wonder even the enemies gave three volleys at his grave as a sign of the highest recognition of bravery .

The feat of Nikolai Sirotinin was lost among the glorious examples of courage Soviet soldiers. Its history was studied and covered only in the early 60s. At the same time, his family also learned about the heroic battle. In the post-war period, the grave of Sirotinin, which was made by the Germans in a village called Sokolnichi, had to be removed. Remains valiant warrior were buried in a mass grave. The cannon, from which Sirotinin shot down a tank division, has been scrapped for recycling. Today, nevertheless, a monument has been erected, and in Krichev there is a street with his last name.

The inhabitants of Belarus remember and respect the feat, although not everyone in Russia knows this glorious story. Time gradually covers with its patina the events of wartime. Despite the fact that the heroism of Sirotinin was recognized back in 1960 thanks to the efforts of the workers of the Archive of the Soviet Army, the title of Hero of the USSR was not awarded.

A painfully absurd circumstance got in the way: the soldier's family did not have his photograph. The photo card has become necessary for the submission of documents. As a result, a person who gave his life for his country is little known in his Fatherland and was awarded only the Order of the Patriotic War of the first degree.

However, Sirotinin did not fight for glory, and it is unlikely that when he died, he thought about orders. Most likely, this person devoted to the USSR hoped that his descendants would be free, and that a person with a fascist swastika would never set foot on Russian soil. Apparently, he was mistaken, although it is still not too late to resist the vile attempts to rewrite history.
In this article, we again mention his glorious name so that the memory of the heroes of the war is not erased. Everlasting memory and glory to Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin, a true patriot and brave son of his country!