Karatsupa Nikita Fedorovich biography. Great Ranger Karatsupa

In the Moscow metro at the Ploshchad Revolyutsii station, 76 bronze sculptures are located in the niches of the hall. Sculptor Matvey Manizer created images of Soviet people, but the most famous of them, perhaps, is a border guard with a dog. According to an established tradition (coming from Bauman students), passers-by rub the dog’s nose for good luck, but hardly anyone can guess who is hiding behind this figure.

In the late 1930s, when these sculptures were created, newspapers wrote a lot about the famous border guard Nikita Karatsup and his dog Hindu. Photos of a border guard with his faithful dog inspired the sculptor Manizer and served as prototypes for his sculptural heroes.

The fate of the legendary border guard was not easy. Nikita Karatsupa was born into a peasant family in the village of Alekseevka, Zaporozhye region. His father died early, and his mother and children went to work in Turkestan. But when Nikita was seven years old, his mother also died, and the boy ended up in an orphanage. However, the boy, with an independent and freedom-loving character, soon ran away from it and went to work as a shepherd for a local bai. It was here, surrounded by dogs, that Nikita learned to find a common language with them and mastered training skills. His first pet, Druzhok, under the guidance of his young master, showed extraordinary abilities, protecting the herd from wolves, which caused everyone's amazement.

It was at this time that Nikita Karatsupa learned to recognize traces of people and animals and distinguish the smallest shades of smells. These skills later came in handy in his service (he could distinguish 240 odors).

In 1932, when it was time to join the army, Nikita Karatsupa, reporting to the military registration and enlistment office, expressed a desire to serve on the border. At first he was refused this - he was short - but the young man persisted, saying that it would be more difficult for violators to notice him.

And Nikita was sent to the Manchurian border. Noticing his ability to skillfully handle dogs, the leadership assigned him to the NKVD school, located in Khabarovsk, where they trained service dog handlers. As Nikita Fedorovich himself later recalled, he arrived to study late, so he did not get a puppy to train. However, without being confused, he found two stray mongrels on the street, similar to East European shepherds, and took them in for his own upbringing. When the dogs grew up, he kept one for himself and gave the other to a fellow cadet.

Nikita Karatsupa named his dog Hindu. Subsequently, all his dogs (there were five of them) bore this name, and only in the fifties, when the Soviet Union began to improve relations with India, he was asked to change the name to Ingus.

While studying at the service dog training school, Nikita learned to shoot accurately, mastered hand-to-hand combat techniques, and also developed the ability to run long distances. He could run 50 km at the same pace as a dog. He took off his boots, overcoat and cap, chasing border violators. In these cases, Karatsupa entered into battle with them alone, since his colleagues could not keep up with him.

Once Karatsupa and Hindu together managed to detain nine armed intruders. Nikita Fedorovich showed ingenuity. While in the dark, he gave orders to the border guards who were supposedly next to him, creating the impression that a whole detachment was involved in the arrest. This incident thundered throughout the country and brought Karatsupa national fame.

In total, during his years of service, Karatsupa detained 338 border violators and destroyed 129 spies and saboteurs who did not want to surrender. He himself was wounded three times.

All his dogs did not live to old age; they died at the hands of bandits at a combat post. Karatsupa brought his last dog, seriously injured, to Moscow and tried to cure it, but the veterinarians were unable to save her. A stuffed animal of this dog, made at the request of Nikita Fedorovich himself, is today in the border guards museum.

The famous border guard Nikita Karatsupa (Hero of the Soviet Union, colonel of the border service) lived a long time - until 1994. During his lifetime, many monuments were erected to him - and not only in the metro. For example, the plaster monument “Defender of the Far Eastern Borders” (Karatsupa with a dog) was located on the roof of the Rodina cinema on Semenovskaya Square, where at that time there was a summer cafe. When the cafe was closed, the sculpture was lost.

And after the death of Nikita Fedorovich (at the age of 84), a monument was erected to him in Terletsky Park. The author of the monument is Salavat Shcherbakov.

An orphan who escaped from an orphanage turned into a man whose courage and skills were legendary.

Trainer from God

Nikita Karatsupa was born in 1910 in Alekseevka, Ekaterinoslav province. At the age of six, the boy was left an orphan and ended up in a Kazakh orphanage. But already in 1917 he ran away and lived on the street. After several years of wandering, the future border guard hired himself as a shepherd for a local cattle owner. Here Nikita first received a dog named as a partner Buddy. A nine-year-old boy, who has no idea about training, taught the dog to herd and guard sheep on his own.

During the Civil War, detachments of Kolchakites were located on the territory of Kazakhstan. The young shepherd was a messenger for the local partisans, bringing food to their shelters. The White Guards suspected the boy of having connections with the underground, but, as they say, they did not catch him by the hand.

Smell like a dog

The young man’s desire to serve on the border arose when a border guard came to his village on leave. He talked about his service in Karelia and even gave the boy a book on cynology.

In 1932, Nikita joined the border troops. At first he was refused due to his short stature, but the young man insisted and after initial training he was sent to the Manchurian border.

The outpost commander noticed that the newcomer got along well with dogs. The private was seconded to the service dog breeding school. Nikita arrived to class later than the others, when the four-legged animals had already been assigned. The cadet himself found his future partner on the street. There were two puppies, which were mongrels with a strong shepherd mix. He named one Karatsupa Hindu and kept it for himself, and gave the second one to a school friend.

By the way : All subsequent dogs of the legendary border guard were called Indians. But at a time when the USSR became very friendly with India, out of political correctness in all publications the nickname was replaced with Ingus.

The cadet not only taught his dog, but also prepared for a situation where the dog would not be able to help him. Karatsupa remembered more than 240 odors, primarily perfumes, alcohol, leather and other possible contraband.

But most importantly, Karatsupa learned to analyze traces. In those years, the practice of people imitating animal tracks was widespread. The border guard systematized his observations. This allowed him to quickly determine the number of violators, the type of contraband, and even approximately the appearance of the intruders.

Nikita also paid attention to shooting, hand-to-hand combat and long-distance running. Thanks to this, he could protect himself and keep up with the dog during the chase. He could rush after the enemy even without boots.

Eye like an eagle

The difficult natural terrain and global situation made the Poltavka outpost convenient for illegal entry. Once Karatsupa detained attackers who were planning to blow up a bridge. The miners pretended to be fishermen, but Nikita Fedorovich quickly noticed their inability to bait the worm.

In the first three years of service alone, Karatsupe managed to detain more than 130 violators and prevent the smuggling of contraband worth 600 thousand rubles.

Soon Nikita Fedorovich became an unquestioned authority for local residents. One day, a saboteur tried to escape in a car. Karatsupa stopped a passing van and asked the driver to unload so he could move faster.

The man was worried about the safety of the bags left on the side of the road. Then the border guard put a note on the cargo, in which he promised to find possible kidnappers and signed: “Karatsupa and the Hindu dog.” As a result, the spy was caught, but the cargo remained intact.

The faithful companions of the fearless border guard, who were also considered heroes at the outpost, were less fortunate. Over two decades of service, Nikita Fedorovich had five dogs, all of them were killed by border violators during detention.

Silent War

Heroes of the Soviet Union (from left to right) Colonel A.N. Ryzhov, famous border guard, reserve colonel N.F. Karatsupa, retired senior lieutenant I.I. Kiselyov on Red Square after the presentation of the Order of Lenin and Gold Star medals. 1965 Egorov Vasily/TASS Photo Chronicle

For exemplary service, Colonel Nikita Karatsupa was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1965. In total, the legendary border guard and his Hindus had to engage in battle 120 times. They detained 338 and killed 129 border violators. The hero died in 1994 in Moscow, on November 18. And in 2000, the Poltavka outpost, where Karatsupa served, was named after him.

The history of border protection knows many names that have become legendary. The border service is such that there is no peacetime in it - at any moment you have to be prepared for criminal encroachment from smugglers, saboteurs, and armed gangs.

Shepherd of the Kazakh bai

Even the calmest sections of the border are only relatively calm - the slightest relaxation allowed by the border guards can lead to dire consequences.

But even in the large list of border guard heroes there is a name that stands out especially. This man not only received the unofficial title of “grandfather of all border guards” during his lifetime, but also stood on a par with the epic heroes who once also guarded the borders of Rus'.

When in a simple peasant family Fedora Karatsupa, who lived in the Ukrainian village of Alekseevka, on April 12, 1910, a boy was born, named Nikita, nothing said that the baby had an extraordinary future.

Moreover, life did not spoil little Nikita. Shortly after his birth, his father died. Mother, Marfa Kuzminichna, in 1913, with three children, in search of a better life, she moved to Kazakhstan.

Nikita was six when her mother died. The older brother and sister did not concern themselves with Nikita’s fate. Thekla went to work and got married, leaving her younger brother to his own devices. Gregory went to Ukraine, where during the Civil War he joined the Makhnovists and was killed in one of the battles.

Young Nikita was sent to an orphanage, where he, however, did not stay - he ran away and began to wander. During the Civil War there were hundreds of thousands like him. Nikita could have died at any moment, but fate seemed to be protecting him.

At the age of 9, the boy was hired to work for one of the Kazakhstani bais and began to herd a flock of sheep. A shepherd cannot do without such an assistant as a dog, and Nikita also got one. The dog's name was Druzhok.

Here Nikita Karatsupa’s innate talent first awakened. The boy managed to train an untrained dog so that it could independently herd a flock of sheep, protecting them from wolves.

Hero of the Soviet Union border guard Nikita Karatsupa. 1974 Photo: RIA Novosti / Peter Bernstein

The Inconspicuous Border Guard

During the Civil War, the shepherd boy Nikita was a messenger in the partisan detachment of the “Reds” and in this role managed to annoy Kolchak’s men a lot, who were never able to catch the clever boy.

After the Civil War, Nikita Karatsupa tried several professions, but did not find himself in them. Everything changed when one day a border guard guarding the border in Karelia arrived in the village where Nikita lived. From his story, the young guy learned about the border service and how dogs are used in it.

Nikita decided to become a border guard. However, when he was drafted into the army in 1932, the military registration and enlistment office did not appreciate the former shepherd’s impulse. “He’s short for a border guard,” Nikita was told.

The short Karatsupa immediately retorted: “Nothing, even the intruder will not notice the short border guard.”

Taken aback, the military registration and enlistment office workers sent the conscript to the border troops. After completing the initial training course, he was sent to the border with Manchuria. In the Far East at that time it was turbulent - in 1930-1931 alone, border guards detained 15,000 violators.

Private Karatsupa attracted the attention of the head of the outpost. The guy was an excellent tracker, he was well versed in the tracks of people and animals, he could determine who passed, when and in what direction. In addition, Nikita got along well with horses and dogs.

On the recommendation of the head of the outpost, Private Karatsupa was sent for further training to the Far Eastern District School of Junior Command Staff of Service Dog Breeding of the NKVD Border and Internal Guard.

Hindu from under the bridge

The training began with embarrassment - Karatsupe did not get a dog at school, since he arrived later than the training course began. This, however, did not bother the young border guard. One day he found two small stray puppies under a bridge.

From mongrel mongrels, which he named Indus and Irgus, Karatsupa raised service and detection dogs.

Nikita handed Irgus over to another cadet, and the border guard kept the more lively Hindu for himself.

The Hindu would not have passed any modern exhibition - he was a simple mongrel without a pedigree, but among his ancestors there were clearly East European shepherd dogs. Karatsupa was not mistaken - the dog turned out to be extremely talented and intelligent, with an extremely high efficiency.

Their first violators, Indus and Karatsupa, were detained while still practicing at a dog breeding school. There, a young border guard was involved in the search for a brutal serial killer. Karatsupa and his dog followed the trail for several tens of kilometers and still overtook the criminal, who did not want to give up and was destroyed.

When the service dog handler Karatsupa arrived at the Poltavka outpost of the Grodekovsky border detachment after graduating from school, they looked at him skeptically. The attitude towards newcomers is always wary, and the exploits of the border guard at school were considered exaggerated.

However, skepticism dissipated very quickly, because Karatsupa and Hindu showed themselves in all their glory. During the first three years of service, they accounted for 131 detained violators.

Universal Soldier

Karatsupa himself not only had an amazing ability to work, but also constantly developed his skills. For example, he distinguished about 240 different odors. He constantly systematized and generalized his observations related to official tracking. Subsequently, the next generations of border guards will be trained at the scientific base created by Karatsupa.

Nikita Karatsupa is known primarily as an instructor of service dog breeding, but he often had to detain violators without the help of a dog. This was helped by constant training in shooting and hand-to-hand combat.

In addition, Karatsupa constantly trained long-distance running in order to move in the same rhythm with the dog following the scent. It happened that the border guard would take off his cap, overcoat, boots and, lightly, with one Mauser, continue to follow the dog.

Service dog breeding instructor Karatsupa seemed to know and be able to do everything. One day he identified the saboteurs who were preparing to blow up a bridge using just one detail. The criminals, masquerading as fishermen, incorrectly placed the worm on the hook, which did not escape the attention of the avid fisherman Karatsupa. As a result, the saboteurs were detained.

Colleagues simply could not keep up with Karatsupa and his dogs, so very often the border guard detained violators only with the dog.

He was not afraid of either the armament of his opponents or their numbers. Once Nikita Karatsupa independently detained a gang of drug couriers, which included nine people.

From Manchuria to Vietnam

There were legends about the glory of Karatsupa in the Far East. Once, while chasing an intruder, a border guard stopped the car to catch up with the saboteur, who fled on a hitchhiker. The stopped truck needed to be unloaded from food so that he could catch up with the car in which the criminal left.

The border guard put a note on the bags left on the ground: “Whoever dares to take even a gram will be found and severely punished. Border guard Karatsupa and the dog Hindu.” As a result, the criminal was detained, but no one touched the cargo with a finger - such was Nikita Fedorovich’s authority among the local population.

It is impossible to cover the entire biography of a border guard-tracker in one article. He spent most of his service in the Far East, but in 1944 he was transferred to Belarus, where he restored the border and fought against Nazi collaborators. There was also a completely unique page in Karatsupa’s life - in 1957 he went on a business trip to Vietnam, where he helped create local border troops virtually from scratch.

Nikita Fedorovich Karatsupa entered the reserve in 1961 with the relatively modest rank of colonel. Moreover, his general track record is as follows: 338 detained violators, participation in 120 clashes with saboteurs and criminals, in which Nikita Karatsupa personally destroyed 127 opponents offering armed resistance.

The saboteurs were on a real hunt for Karatsupa himself, trying to destroy the legendary border guard. Nikita Fedorovich was wounded three times, and more than once his faithful dogs saved him from death. During his service, Karatsupa had five of them, all of them, in honor of the very first dog, were called Hindus, and all of them died in battles with saboteurs.

The last wounded Hindu Karatsupa, then already known throughout the country, was taken to Moscow to the best veterinarians in the country. However, they were unable to save the dog. The Fifth Hindu is now in the Museum of Border Troops - taxidermists made a stuffed animal from the dead dog at the personal request of Nikita Fedorovich.

Dog nickname

Until the last years of his life, Nikita Fedorovich Karatsupa worked at the Museum of Border Troops, helped in training young people, and created a large theoretical base and methodology for training service dogs.

Karatsupa was a unique specialist who literally knew all the secrets of a dog’s soul. For example, he knew how to give commands to dogs... over the phone. And the formidable watchdogs, hearing the voice from the telephone receiver, obeyed unquestioningly.

An interesting point - for a long time in books and articles about Karatsup his dogs appeared under “pseudonyms” - not “Indus”, but “Ingus”. Someone very cautious was afraid of international complications - they say that the dog name “Hindu” could offend our friendly Indians.

Apparently, the Indians were not offended - one of the border outposts in India bears the name of Nikita Karatsupa, whose fame has reached those distant places. There is a similar outpost in Vietnam, where they appreciated the help the legendary Soviet border guard provided during the creation of the border service in the country.

In 1995, after the death of Nikita Karatsupa, the outpost where he began his brilliant career - Poltavka - received his name.

During his life, Nikita Fedorovich Karatsupa received many awards, but he was awarded the highest after retiring. On June 21, 1965, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

April 25, 2010 marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Nikita Fedorovich Karatsupa, Hero of the Soviet Union, legendary Soviet border guard.

Nikita Fedorovich Karatsupa was born on April 25, 1910. in the village of Alekseevka, now Kuibyshevsky district, Zaporozhye region of Ukraine, in a peasant family.

In 1913, together with his mother (he did not remember his father, who died very early), he moved to Kazakhstan and lived in Atbasar. At the age of seven he was left an orphan and was brought up in the Shchuchin orphanage in the Kokchetav region of Kazakhstan.

In October 1932 he was drafted into the border troops.

In 1933, he graduated from the Far Eastern District School for junior command staff of service dog breeding, in 1937 - training courses for command personnel at the Central School of Service Dog Breeding of the NKVD Border and Internal Guard, in 1939 - retraining courses for command personnel at the Central School of Service Dog Breeding of the NKVD troops.

Since 1933, Nikita Karatsupa served as a guide and then as an instructor of service dogs at the Far Eastern border outpost. Since September 1937 - in command positions at the headquarters of the Grodekovsky border detachment. From May 1944 he served in the Belarusian border troops, from 1952 - at the headquarters of the Transcaucasian border districts.

In 1957-1961. worked in the Main Directorate of Border Troops of the USSR, helped establish the border service in Vietnam.

During his 20 years of service on the border, Karatsupa took part in 120 clashes with enemies, detained 338 border violators alive, and destroyed 129 spies and saboteurs. He became famous for creating his own special school for educating trackers and training dogs.

In 1961, Colonel Nikita Karatsupa was transferred to the reserve.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 21, 1965, for the exemplary fulfillment of command assignments to protect the State Border of the USSR and the courage and heroism displayed, Nikita Karatsupa was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

Karatsupa was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star, and medals.

In recent years, Nikita Karatsupa lived in Moscow and worked at the Central Museum of Border Troops. He is the author of the book "Notes of a Pathfinder" about the border service.

Schools, libraries, river boats, the Poltavka outpost of the Grodekovsky border detachment, and border outposts in Vietnam and India are named after Karatsupa. By order of the chief of troops of the Red Banner Pacific Border District, Karatsupa was enlisted as an honorary border guard at the Poltavka outpost, where he constantly carried out a combat watch for the first ten years of his border service.

After a trip to the homeland of the legendary border guard Nikita Fedorovich Karatsupa (to the village of Alekseevka, Zaporozhye region), we can say with complete confidence: the border guards of the entire former Union have a small sensation. It turns out that their idol was born not in 1910, but in 1909. And this spring, and not next, it was necessary to celebrate his centenary. This fact was discovered just two days before the significant date.

The anniversary will be celebrated on the 101st anniversary

It all started with the fact that our regional council planned to install memorial plaques to all Heroes of the Soviet Union (on those houses that were preserved), - Sergei Shevchuk, deputy head of the Kuibyshev district administration of the Zaporozhye region, tells KP. - We began to check the metric data of our fellow countrymen - Heroes of the Soviet Union Ivan Demyanenko and Nikita Karatsupa. It was then that in the regional archive they found documents that Nikita Fedorovich, it turns out, was born in 1909! His father died in February 1909 from tuberculosis before his son was born, which is also confirmed by documents. So Nikita Karatsupa could not have been born in 1910. And his mother then married a fellow villager named Skrypka.

The Cossacks wrote a letter about this to the Central Museum of Border Troops of the FSB of Russia. But it was not possible to “rewrite history” quickly. Therefore, for now, the official date of birth remains 1910. In addition, as Karatsupa’s fellow countrymen say, his 100th birthday will have to be celebrated next spring also because they found out the true year of birth of the legendary border guard just two days before April 25...

While the cogs of the official recognition of the new date are turning, a memorial sign for the 100th anniversary of the hero was unveiled in the homeland of the legendary border guard. And for the second year in a row, Border Guard Day is celebrated here with special celebrations. Former border guards from Ukraine and Russia come to the small, hospitable Alekseevka. This year, “border guards” from Donetsk, Mariupol, Zaporozhye, Berdyansk, and Rostov-on-Don came to this holiday. The largest delegation - about 60 people - was the delegation from our region, which brought together border service veterans from Dnepropetrovsk and Krivoy Rog.

And from Sinelnikovo we even brought our honor guard - the best fighters of the search squad from school No. 5 “Poisk-Dnepr” under the leadership of the military instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Evgeniy Trushenko,” says the deputy head of the border guards section of the regional organization of SBU veterans “Unity” and the chairman of the Dnepropetrovsk regional border guards association reserve warrant officer Alexander Sokolov. - We also developed a medal for the 100th anniversary of Nikita Karatsupa. She has already been included in a special register of awards in Ukraine.

Were you afraid of being chased by bandits?

Nikita Karatsupa’s niece Valentina Dmitrievna Avdeeva came to the homeland of her famous uncle from Ufa. The last time she was in Alekseevka was in 2005, and before that - back in the 60s of the last century. Waiting for her here were her cousin Maria Ivanovna Chigrin (their fathers, Dmitry and Ivan Savelyevich, are Nikita Fedorovich’s half-brothers on his mother’s side) and the daughter-in-law of Nikita Fedorovich’s brother, Olga Grigorievna Karatsupa.

Thanks to my uncle, I was not left an orphan, he supported me in difficult times. I remember Nikita Fedorovich as kind, attentive, and decisive. My mother and I lived in Astrakhan. When my father was wounded near Stalingrad, my mother went to look for him at the Astrakhan hospital. Uncle Nikita wrote in letters that we can always count on his help and his border guard friends who served in our places,” recalls Valentina Dmitrievna.

Relatives told us how at the age of three Nikita left with his family for Kazakhstan, and at the age of seven he became an orphan. Perhaps that is why there was confusion with the date of birth...

- Did he come back to his native village years later?

My mother-in-law told me that he came in 1935,” recalls Olga Karatsupa. - My husband’s sisters also recalled that then in the village they said: “The police have arrived.” And this is Nikita who has arrived.

Baba Nastya and Baba Maria said that he arrived when the bandits killed his brother Yakov in order to deal with them all, adds Valentina Avdeeva. - And they told him: “They have already found and dealt with it.” Then he took his aunts to visit Moscow and show them around the capital. At the same time, the letter “yu” in Karatsyup’s surname was changed to “u”.

- Why?

It seems like he was offended for his brother.

What the murder of his brother actually has to do with his surname and why the border guard changed it, Nikita Karatsupa’s relatives could not explain to Komsomolskaya Pravda. Or they didn’t want to... But other villagers suggested that changing his last name was “covering his tracks so that the bandits would no longer pursue him.” True, it is unlikely that this will be true or not - the participants in that drama have long been in their graves...

But the relatives accepted the new date of birth of their uncle unconditionally.

We felt that something was wrong. Everything didn't work out. After all, my father has a 1911,” says a niece from Bashkiria.

And mine is from 1913,” adds Maria Chigrin.

Unfortunately, the son and daughter of Nikita Karatsupa could not come this time. Colonel Anatoly Karatsupa, like his father, is a border guard and lives in Belarus, where he moved from Moscow. Alla Karatsupa (after marriage she kept her famous surname) lives in Moscow. Her husband Nikolai and son Andrei are also military men and served in the presidential guard.

Next year Alekseevka will celebrate the official 100th anniversary of its famous countryman. And perhaps by that time guests here will be greeted with other new secrets from the biography of the idol of our border guards.

FROM PERSONAL MATTER

Nikita Fedorovich Karatsupa was born on April 12 (25), 1911 (this year is written in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia). Colonel, Hero of the Soviet Union (1965). Born into a peasant family. Since 1932 in the border troops. He graduated from the school for junior command staff of service dogs (1933) and the Central school for command staff of service dogs of the border troops (1937). In 1933-37, a guide and instructor of service dogs at the border outpost, from 1939 in various positions at the headquarters of border detachments, border districts, in 1957-61 at the headquarters of the USSR border troops. Since 1961 - in reserve. A skilled tracker, he participated in 120 military clashes with smugglers and saboteurs, and detained 467 state border violators. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star and medals. Died November 18, 1994.