Real fighting Buryats. How the Buryats fought during the Great Patriotic War “Rokossovsky’s Gang”: the most heroic penal battalion of the Great Patriotic War

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, snipers entered the fight against the enemy from its first hours. They used:

— sniper rifle model 1891/1930;

— Tokarev SVT-40 self-loading rifle;

— automatic sniper rifle ABC-36;

- Bramit type muffler (device of the Mitin brothers).

As the war progressed, the importance of sniper fire increased. It is no coincidence that in reports on the combat operations of enemy snipers, losses from their fire were often mentioned in the same breath as the work of artillery and aviation.
Below the cut is a post about the 8 most successful Buryat snipers of World War II.

Arseny Etobaev. 356 killed, 2 aircraft shot down. The only sniper to shoot down more than one plane.
Etobaev's award list:




Etobaev's sniper book:




2.

Zhambyl Tulaev. 313 killed, including 30 German snipers. The 33 snipers trained by Tulaev killed 1,142 Nazis.
Decree on conferring the title “Hero of the Soviet Union” and Tulaev’s award list:


A short video about Tulaev:

3.

Dorzhiev Tsyren-Dashi. 297 killed. Knocked down 1 enemy plane. On January 3, 1943, he died in the Valdai hospital as a result of a fatal wound to the head from a shrapnel.
Award order and award list for Dorzhiev:


4.


Ukhinov Dorzhi. 193 killed. The archives of the local history museum contain a letter of gratitude from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR I.V. Stalin with the following content:

“To the Chairman of the Sverdlov collective farm of the Kharamodun Village Council of the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Your collective farmer Ukhinov Dorzhi destroyed 170 German soldiers and officers. Convey our gratitude to the father, mother and relatives of Comrade Ukhinov.

I.V.Stalin. Moscow. Kremlin 1943"

5.

Sanzhiev Togon. He destroyed 186 enemy soldiers and officers in six months of 1942. Combat partner of the famous sniper Semyon Nomokonov. He died in June 1942 in a sniper duel near Staraya Russa.
Lines from Sanzhiev’s award list:


A note in a front-line newspaper about Sanzhiev:


Semyon Nomokonov and Togon Sanzhiev 1942

Rare film footage from 1942. The funeral of Sanzhiev and Nomokonov’s transfer of his rifle to the best sniper of the regiment, Boris Kanotov, were filmed:

6.


Tsydypov Tsybik. 186 killed. He fought on the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts. He especially distinguished himself near Tikhvin.
Award sheet and line in the award sheet:



7.

Manidariev Odo. In street battles near Stalingrad he destroyed 108 enemy soldiers and officers.
Line from Manidariev’s award sheet:


8.


Ayusheev Radna. Served in the 63rd separate marine brigade of the Northern Fleet. In October 1944 alone, he destroyed 25 enemy soldiers and officers. He went missing in 1944.

The Nazis feared them like fire. “The Russians are something terrible, and there is no hiding from them,” one of the German soldiers wrote in a letter home about Soviet snipers. And they had something to be afraid of: almost every bullet from the master of accurate fire with a red star on the cap accurately hit the target. Only the legendary Zhambal Tulaev and his students destroyed about 1.5 thousand Germans, the Buryatia newspaper reports.

“His deeds will be remembered forever, his image will be cast from copper,” the front-line poet predicted the post-war life of Zhambal Yesheevich. And so it happened. Today, the fearless warrior of the Tunkin Valley, for whose head the Nazis offered a million Reichsmarks, is known everywhere. The names of our other brave fighters of enemies are also well known - Nikifor Afanasyev, Tsyrendashi Dorzhiev, Arseny Etobaev, Garma Baltyrov (erroneously Boltyrev). Unfortunately, other Buryat snipers are rarely mentioned these days; their names are practically not included in the lists of the best snipers of the Second World War.

Forgotten mergans of Victory

One of these undeservedly forgotten accurate front-line soldiers is Gavril Lebedev, a native of the Mukhorshibirsky district. Gavril Borisovich, according to updated data, fired 67 accurate shots from a rifle (No. 3757) and distinguished himself as a skilled master of sniper “props”. Sparing, but accurately describing the front-line feat, the words from his award sheet (awarded the Order of the Red Banner) confirm the heroism and courage of the Mayor of Victory: “As a sniper, mercilessly destroying the Nazi invaders, Comrade Le-bedev for the period from November 22 1942 to February 3, 1943 destroyed 23 Fritz."

One of the most famous snipers of the Battle of Stalingrad Garma Baltyrov

If the fellow countryman of the Hero of the Soviet Union Zhambal Tulaev - Buda Galsanov in Tunka is still remembered, then, alas, they have forgotten about the native of the village of Zhemchug (or Okhor Shibir) Markha Ayusheev. A few days ago it was possible to establish: Markha Lopsonovich (according to front-line documents Mark Lansonovich and Markha Loisonovich) died on October 5, 1943. It turned out that he served as a sniper in a company of machine gunners of the 707th Infantry Regiment of the 213th Infantry Division of the 31st Army. On July 12, 1943, regiment commander Ryazanov nominated him for the Order of the Red Star. The now-forgotten “skilled sniper, brave, proactive” received the award in August 1943 for the fact that “during the period January-June months he destroyed 59 Nazis, repeatedly participated in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, as a result of which he received two combat wounds." Today, few people know another Tunkin sniper, Andrei Nefedyev, who, also possessing remarkable physical strength, exterminated enemies in hand-to-hand combat. His two awards - the Order of the Red Star and the medal "For Courage" - speak better than any words about the valor of a native of the Tunkinsk village of Sagan-Nur.

The fate of the Dzhida “Fritz hunter” Konstantin Dorzhiev is dramatic. In one of the sniper duels in the winter of 1943 near the Vistula River in Poland, he was seriously wounded in the head. After three years of treatment in hospitals, Konstantin Sambuevich returned home to his native Verkhny Ichetuy as a disabled person of the first group. But still, a remarkable will prevailed. And love, big and pure. A girl named Tsyren-Dulma was waiting for a brave and strong-willed sniper from the war. In 1949, the Dorzhievs, “to spite all deaths,” got married and celebrated a housewarming in a spacious house.

Fellow countrymen say: Konstantin Dorzhiev decided to become a sniper after he learned about the death of the “master of precision fire” Zhimbe Pagbaev, whom few people know outside his small homeland. But on October 3, 1942, the sniper of the 4th squadron of the 12th cavalry regiment of the 3rd Guards Cavalry Division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. From the award sheet: “Comrade Pagbaev, being an excellent sniper, on 8/8/42 destroyed 15 fascists with his sniper rifle. 9.8.42 near the village of Kolokolnya from the machine gun of comrade. Pagbaev destroyed about 10 fascists and 2 fascist soldiers in hand-to-hand combat.”

Caught in the heat of war

Until recently, the exploits of the Buryat sniper, a native of the Trans-Baikal Territory (called up by the Petrovsko-Transbaikalsky RVC) Shagdyr Kulyrov, remained unknown. From the hero’s award list it follows that the sniper shooter of the 529th Infantry Regiment of the 163rd Infantry Division was nominated (07/16/42) for the Order of the Red Banner. But (this happened extremely rarely during the war) he received a higher award - the Order of Lenin. The combat list of sniper Kulyrov, who went missing in 1942, includes more than 90 exterminated fascists.

Two years after the Victory, a belated award - the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree - found a native of the Kyakhtinsky district, Innokenty Igumnov. Another rarely mentioned Buryat sniper received it because in 1944 he accomplished several feats: in a battle near the village of Cossacks, south of Vitebsk, he personally destroyed three German snipers, and a few days later he suppressed an enemy machine-gun point .

As an eighteen-year-old boy, after graduating from the 25th Nizhneudinsk sniper school, Bichurian Georgy Belykh ended up in the 136th separate ski battalion of the second Belorussian Front. The reconnaissance sniper found himself in the thick of battle - near Vitebsk. Georgy Kalistratovich returned home with the Order of Glory, III degree and two medals “For Vague.”

Several dozen of our fellow countrymen graduated from the same famous “twenty-fifth” school, including Ivan Bardamov, Honorary Master of Sports of the USSR in bullet shooting, and Ananiy Nikitin, holder of three Orders of Glory.

One of the most talented students of Zhambal Tulaev is a native of the village of Argada, Kurumkan district, Dorzhi Ukhinov. According to unconfirmed data, Dorzhi Tsyrempilovich, who served in the same platoon with his mentor, destroyed 193 Nazis. It is not yet known what orders Zhambal Tulaev’s student has been awarded. But recently we managed to find his award sheet for the medal “For Military Merit”. As noted in the front-line document, Dorzhi Ukhinov from May 20 to July 31, 1942, “moving beyond the front line of the regimental defense in front of the village of Mednikovo, destroyed 36 Nazis.” He went missing at the end of February 1943 near the village of Staroye Ramushevo, Leningrad Region.

As for Zhambal Tulaev’s other students, their surnames are distorted in several sources - “Ananiy Gyneev, Dmitry Zagnoev, Banoy Erboev.” In fact, these are Ananiy Gineev, Dmitry Zaginaev, Banai Erbaev. According to the Book of Memory of Buryatia, Banai Erbaev died a heroic death on February 16, 1943 and was buried in Leningrad. However, from the report of losses it follows: the primary burial place of the front-line soldier is the village of Gorby, Leningrad Region. But for Anania Gineev, apparently, his front-line “profession” as a sniper was not the main one. He distinguished himself as a brave scout who, as part of the legendary battalion of Stepan Ne-ustroev, hoisted the Victory Banner over the defeated Reichstag. Nothing is known yet about the fate of Tula-ev’s pupil, Dondok Budaev.

Girls went out to “hunt”

Along with men on the front line, women snipers demonstrated miracles of courage and bravery. According to my calculations, more than 10 Buryat women - masters of ultra-precise fire from a sniper rifle - fought on the fronts of the Second World War. These are Tatyana Popova, Ekaterina Volosatova (Filippova), Matryona Thomson, Iraida (Irina) Tayurskaya, Valentina Astrakhantseva, Tatyana Bryanskaya (Mikhaleva), Klyora (Clara) Karpenko, Antonina Guzel, Valentina Babuchenko (Usoltseva), Elena Ivanova ( Trifonov).

A native of the Tunkinsky district, Tatyana Yakovlevna Popova fought at the front as a sniper in a sniper company (10th Guards Army). She was awarded the “Sniper” badge and the medal “For Military Merit” - for destroying five Germans in battles near the Latvian village of Purvini in December 1943. There, in the same battle, 18-year-old Iraida Tayurskaya (born in the village of Sredniy Ubukun, Selenginsky district) distinguished herself, also receiving the medal “For Military Merit.” Iraida Tayurskaya is a graduate of the legendary Central Women's School of Sniper Training (TsZHSSP), which was based in Podolsk near Moscow. Polina Bryanskaya, Klyora Karpenko, awarded the Order of the Red Star, and other Buryat front-line soldiers graduated from this school.

The other day, another unique document from the Second World War was found. He testifies: a native of the village of Ganzurino, Ivolginsky district, Matryona Thomson was awarded the medal “For Courage” for her feat during the war. In May 1945, in a battle near the village of Bela, she destroyed a German officer, and in a battle at an unnamed height - two soldiers.

During the search for our snipers, I assumed that on the fronts of the Second World War, female snipers of Buryat nationality also beat the enemy. Not long ago I managed to find front-line documents that confirmed my assumptions. First, an award sheet was found for front-line soldier Valentin Magzolova (possibly Mogzolova). Valentina Ayusheevna, born in the Alarsky district of the Irkutsk region, was called up by the Selenga RVC. She fought as part of the 714th Infantry Regiment of the 395th Division. She was awarded the medal “For Courage”: in May 1945, she killed seven German soldiers in the Neisse River area. She was wounded, but returned to duty. Surprisingly, in the same unit, Victory was brought closer by a native of the village of Tamcha (or Ekhe-Tsagan) of the Selenga region, junior sergeant, sniper of a company of machine gunners Tsyren-Dulma Do-rzhieva. On March 26, 1945, according to the nomination for the award, Tsyren-Dul-ma Lubsanovna “being “on the hunt” destroyed five German soldiers with well-aimed fire,” and after completing a combat mission she was killed by “an enemy sniper’s bullet.” Awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree. Posthumously. The girl was only 21 years old...

Reference

The most famous Buryat snipers are Heroes of the Soviet Union Zhambal Tulaev and Nikifor Afanasyev. Orders of Lenin were awarded to Tsyrendashi Dorzhiev, Semyon Nomokonov, Arseniy Etobaev and Shagdyr Kulyrov. Among our female snipers, high awards were awarded to: the Order of the Red Star - Klera (Klara) Karpenko, the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree - Tsyren-Dulma Dorzhieva.

Today, the list of the 15 most accurate snipers of the Second World War related to Buryatia looks like this:

1. Semyon Nomokonov (367 exterminated fascists)

2. Arseniy Etobaev (356)

3. Zhambal Tulaev (313)

4. Nikifor Afanasiev (299)

5. Tsyrendashi Dorzhiev (270, according to other sources - 297)

6. Tsybik Tsydypov (more than 250)

7-8. Buda Galsanov and Ignat Khichibeev (more than 200).

9. DorzhiUkhinov (193 or 197)

10. Togon Sanzheev (186)

11. Garma Baltyrov (170)

12-13. Konstantin Dorzhiev and Chimit Tsydypov (127 each)

14. Bato-Munko Damdinov (114)

15. Zhimbe Pagbaev (more than 100)

This registry is not a constant. The combat accounts of many snipers are not documented. From time to time new front-line documents about our snipers are found.

I will add on my own behalf. Shagdar Kulyrov, one of the most productive snipers of the North-Western Front, is not on the list.
Material about Garma Baltyrov and our snipers and.

Scientists are still arguing about why the Buryats are called “Buryats”. This ethnonym first appears in the “Secret History of the Mongols,” dating back to 1240. Then, for more than six centuries, the word “Buryat” was not mentioned, appearing again only in written sources of the late 19th century.

There are several versions of the origin of this word. One of the main ones traces the word “Buryat” to the Khakass “pyraat”, which goes back to the Turkic term “buri”, which translates as “wolf”. “Buri-ata” is correspondingly translated as “father wolf.”

This etymology is due to the fact that many Buryat clans consider the wolf to be a totem animal and their ancestor.

It is interesting that in the Khakass language the sound “b” is muffled and pronounced like “p”. The Cossacks called the people living to the west of the Khakass “pyraat”. Subsequently, this term was Russified and became close to the Russian “brother”. Thus, “Buryats”, “brotherly people”, “brotherly Mungals” began to be called the entire Mongol-speaking population inhabiting the Russian Empire.

Also interesting is the version of the origin of the ethnonym from the words “bu” (gray-haired) and “Oirat” (forest peoples). That is, the Buryats are peoples indigenous to this area (Baikal region and Transbaikalia).

Tribes and clans

The Buryats are an ethnic group formed from several Mongol-speaking ethnic groups living in the territory of Transbaikalia and the Baikal region, which did not then have a single self-name. The formation process took place over many centuries, starting with the Hunnic Empire, which included the Proto-Buryats as Western Huns.

The largest ethnic groups that formed the Buryat ethnos were the Western Khongodors, Bualgits and Ekhirits, and the Eastern ones - the Khorins.

In the 18th century, when the territory of Buryatia was already part of the Russian Empire (according to the treaties of 1689 and 1727 between Russia and the Qing dynasty), Khalkha-Mongol and Oirat clans also came to southern Transbaikalia. They became the third component of the modern Buryat ethnic group.
To this day, tribal and territorial divisions have been preserved among the Buryats. The main Buryat tribes are the Bulagats, Ekhirits, Khoris, Khongodors, Sartuls, Tsongols, Tabanguts. Each tribe is also divided into clans.
Based on their territory, the Buryats are divided into Nizhneuuzky, Khorinsky, Aginsky, Shenekhensky, Selenginsky and others, depending on the lands of residence of the clan.

Black and yellow faith

The Buryats are characterized by religious syncretism. Traditional is a set of beliefs, the so-called shamanism or Tengrianism, in the Buryat language called “hara shazhan” (black faith). From the end of the 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelug school - “Shara Shazhan” (yellow faith) began to develop in Buryatia. He seriously assimilated pre-Buddhist beliefs, but with the advent of Buddhism, Buryat shamanism was not completely lost.

Until now, in some areas of Buryatia, shamanism remains the main religious trend.

The advent of Buddhism was marked by the development of writing, literacy, printing, folk crafts, and art. Tibetan medicine has also become widespread, the practice of which still exists in Buryatia today.

On the territory of Buryatia, in the Ivolginsky datsan, there is the body of one of the ascetics of Buddhism of the twentieth century, the head of the Buddhists of Siberia in 1911-1917, Khambo Lama Itigelov. In 1927, he sat in the lotus position, gathered his disciples and told them to read a prayer of good wishes for the deceased, after which, according to Buddhist beliefs, the lama went into a state of samadhi. He was buried in a cedar cube in the same lotus position, bequeathing before his departure to dig up the sarcophagus 30 years later. In 1955, the cube was lifted.

The body of Hambo Lama turned out to be incorrupt.

In the early 2000s, researchers conducted a study of the llama's body. The conclusion of Viktor Zvyagin, head of the personal identification department of the Russian Center for Forensic Medicine, became sensational: “With the permission of the highest Buddhist authorities of Buryatia, we were provided with approximately 2 mg of samples - these are hair, skin particles, sections of two nails. Infrared spectrophotometry showed that the protein fractions have intravital characteristics - for comparison, we took similar samples from our employees. An analysis of Itigelov’s skin, carried out in 2004, showed that the concentration of bromine in the llama’s body was 40 times higher than the norm.”

Cult of struggle

Buryats are one of the most fighting peoples in the world. National Buryat wrestling is a traditional sport. Since ancient times, competitions in this discipline have been held as part of surkharban - a national sports festival. In addition to wrestling, participants also compete in archery and horse riding. Buryatia also has strong freestyle wrestlers, sambo wrestlers, boxers, track and field athletes, and speed skaters.

Returning to wrestling, we must say about perhaps the most famous Buryat wrestler today - Anatoly Mikhakhanov, who is also called Orora Satoshi.

Mikhakhanov is a sumo wrestler. Orora Satoshi translates from Japanese as “northern lights” and is a shikonu, a professional wrestler's nickname.
The Buryat hero was born as a completely standard child, weighing 3.6 kg, but after that the genes of the legendary ancestor of the Zakshi family, who, according to legend, weighed 340 kg and rode two bulls, began to appear. In the first grade, Tolya already weighed 120 kg, at the age of 16 - under 200 kg with a height of 191 cm. Today the weight of the famous Buryat sumo wrestler is about 280 kilograms.

Hunting for the Nazis

During the Great Patriotic War, the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic sent more than 120 thousand people to defend the Motherland. The Buryats fought on the war fronts as part of three rifle and three tank divisions of the Transbaikal 16th Army. There were also Buryats in the Brest Fortress, which was the first to resist the Nazis. This is even reflected in the song about the defenders of Brest:

Only stones will tell about these battles,
How the heroes stood to the death.
There are Russians, Buryats, Armenians and Kazakhs here
They gave their lives for their homeland.

During the war years, 37 natives of Buryatia were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 10 became full holders of the Order of Glory.

Buryat snipers became especially famous during the war. Which is not surprising - the ability to shoot accurately has always been vital for hunters. Hero of the Soviet Union Zhambyl Tulaev destroyed 262 fascists, and a sniper school was created under his leadership.

Another famous Buryat sniper, senior sergeant Tsyrendashi Dorzhiev, by January 1943, had destroyed 270 enemy soldiers and officers. In a report from the Sovinformburo in June 1942, it was reported about him: “A master of super-accurate fire, Comrade Dorzhiev, who destroyed 181 Nazis during the war, trained and educated a group of snipers, on June 12, snipers-students of Comrade Dorzhiev shot down a German plane.” Another hero, Buryat sniper Arseny Etobaev, destroyed 355 fascists and shot down two enemy planes during the war years.

The legendary "shaman". The skill of Buryat snipers was generally recognized during the war. But only Zhambyl Tulaev, who destroyed 262 Nazis, received the well-deserved title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Semyon Nomokonov and Tsyren-Dashi Dorzhiev were given the highest order of the country - the Order of Lenin. Definitely an honorable award. But still, not the title of Hero...

The order was awarded for particularly outstanding services in the revolutionary movement, labor activity, defense of the socialist Fatherland, development of friendship and cooperation between peoples, strengthening of peace and other particularly outstanding services to the Soviet state and society. That is, for everything.

In addition, after the war, the importance of the Order of Lenin, which was awarded in batches to representatives of the party nomenklatura for the next anniversaries, decreased quite significantly. Thus, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Belarus Nikolai Patolichev and the “civil marshal” Dmitry Ustinov received 11 orders.

And the Hero of the Soviet Union, whatever one may say, was a Hero, and that’s all. There is evidence that snipers Semyon Nomokonov, Tsyren-Dashi Dorzhiev, Arseny Etobaev, about whom the ARD will definitely write, were promoted to the highest rank. But for one reason or another, they didn’t award it, replacing it with the Order of Lenin, they say, “enough of the national men”...

...Tsyren-Dashi Dorzhiev is one of the 50 best Soviet snipers of the Great Patriotic War. He has 270 enemies and a downed plane to his name.

He was born in the Ust-Bar ulus, Mukhorshibir aimag, Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1912. His parents were poor peasants. Tsyren-Dasha’s father was noted for his hard work and was a jack of all trades. The entire Tugnui Valley knew well the skilled master of blacksmithing, carpentry and chasing. In addition, he was a passionate hunter and a good shooter. Hunting was almost his main occupation. And it is not surprising that eight-year-old Tsyren-Dashi fired from his father’s gun one summer.

Already in August 1941, Tsyren-Dashi Dorzhiev volunteered to go to the front. They did not immediately recognize the talent of the 29-year-old Buryat, as in the case of Semyon Nomokonov.

“I was unlucky at the front. They gave me a rifle, a couple of horses and told me that I would deliver food to the kitchen. With great reluctance I had to take up my duties. Once, while talking with the commander, I sincerely expressed to him my desire to become a sniper. The commander granted my request and transferred me to a rifle company,” Dorzhiev wrote home.

Soon he will show himself. A born hunter, he quickly learned the skill of a sniper. From Dorzhiev’s letters:

“They handed me a sniper rifle. By order of the commander, I trained all day to shoot from it. The next day I sat in a camouflaged window and patiently watched the enemy dugout. Soon a fascist crawled out of him. I killed him with one shot, then I managed to kill the second one. We have established exemplary order at the enemy’s front line: the Nazis move only at a crawl.”

In the battles for the village of Simanovo on May 3, 1942, Dorzhiev destroyed 48 targets and shot down a Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter in one day of battle. The commander of the 645th Red Banner Rifle Regiment, presenting Red Army soldier Tsyren-Dashi Rinchinovich for the government award - the Order of Lenin, reported:

“Comrade Dorzhiev has been participating in the Patriotic War since August 1941. During his stay in the regiment, Comrade Dorzhiev became famous as a marksman - an excellent sniper and became known throughout the front as a fighter of the German occupiers. Sniper Dorzhiev’s combat record includes 174 killed Nazis.”

On June 17, 1942, the command of the Northwestern Front awarded Tsyren-Dashi Dorzhiev with a high government award - the Order of Lenin. Congratulating Dorzhiev on his award, the newspaper of the North-Western Front “For the Motherland!” On June 10, 1942 she wrote: “Exterminate the enemy like the sniper Dorzhiev!”

Dorzhiev communicates with front-line correspondents. Behind the sniper is an SVT rifle,

In June 1942, in an army newspaper, in an article by senior political instructor Kuznetsov: “Sniper Dorzhiev became a member of the Lenin Party,” one could read: “The best sniper of our unit is Ts-D. Dorzhiev yesterday, joining the party, said: “I swear, I will mercilessly exterminate the fascists, I promise to double the number of enemies I have killed.”

Dorzhiev himself also began to publish in the newspaper. He published instructions for young snipers and personally trained about twenty marksmen. In September 1942, his article “Snipers were tested in battle” was published in the army newspaper.

The command assigned a special task to a group of snipers led by Dorzhiev: to destroy machine gun crews. After the artillery bombing, the Nazis began to run out of the windows, becoming a good target for the snipers of Dorzhiev’s group. In this battle, he destroyed two machine-gun crews; in total, 84 German soldiers and officers were killed, and Dorzhiev personally killed 36 fascists.

At the end of 1942, the sniper arrived home as part of a front delegation, spoke at rallies, and visited his native village. He won't have to come back...

In the last offensive battles on December 30, 1942, Tsyren-Dashi Dorzhiev was wounded and ended up in the Valdai field hospital. And on January 3, he died from his wounds. Tsyren-Dashi Dorzhiev was buried in the village of Manuylovo, Parfinsky district, Novgorod region, 30 kilometers from the city of Staraya Russa.

Just 14 months as a sniper - and this is the result. One can argue about the effectiveness of the work and the criteria by which the title of Hero was awarded. Let's say Zhambyl Tulaev was not just a sniper, but hunted enemy marksmen, and also trained others. Semyon Nomokonov “removed” the general. Arseniy Etobaev shot down two planes, 356 targets. All of them - Nomokonov, Etobaev, Dorzhiev, are now worthy of the highest title in Russia.

soviet-aces-1936-53

Nikolai Ilyin: the most successful Soviet sniper in the Great Patriotic War

He did not have time to bring the number of his victims to 500 - only six Nazi corpses were missing from the round figure. But Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Ilyin raised a worthy replacement for himself - a cheerful joker, he knew how to simply and easily teach a soldier with a penchant for sniper work the basics of his skill.

A simple guy from Ukraine

Nikolai Ilyin was a country boy from the Ukrainian village of Chernukhino, before the war he worked as a mechanic at a railway depot in the Donetsk region. At the front from the first days of the Great Patriotic War, he volunteered to fight. The fact that Nikolai was an excellent shooter became clear quite quickly - already in September 1941, he, a machine gunner, was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner: by that time Ilyin had destroyed over 80 Nazis.
Ilyin’s colleague, sniper Vasily Silin, taught Nikolai his craft. In the Battle of Stalingrad, Ilyin already had more than a hundred enemy soldiers and officers on his account. For his military merits, the marksman was awarded a personalized combat weapon, with which Hero of the Soviet Union Khusen Andrukhaev beat the enemy. In a day, Sergeant Major Ilyin could destroy up to a dozen or more fascists. He described his exits to positions in a diary, which he carefully kept. These records were quoted by Soviet newspapers during Nicholas’s lifetime.
By November 1942, the sniper had already killed 216 Nazis, for which the command nominated him for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union; in February of the following year, deputy political instructor N. Ilyin received the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star.

“We must love the earth”

Nikolai Ilyin was a good teacher who knew how to clearly and simply explain what the secret of sniper skill was. He taught new snipers to “love the earth”: to dig in as carefully as possible and not be lazy to make several well-camouflaged positions: the earth covers the shooter like armor. “Labor is the architect of a sniper’s success,” Ilyin liked to repeat.
Every good sniper, noted the Hero of the Soviet Union, must determine the distance to enemy positions as accurately as possible by eye, and develop an eye. As the Soviet press wrote about him, “Nikolai resolutely rejected recklessness, did not tolerate brashness, ostentatious courage” - only with composure can a sniper achieve a good result, Ilyin convinced.
As an example of such deadly behavior, Nikolai cited a case from his sniper practice. One day he was discovered by an enemy sniper. He shot at Ilyin and missed. Nikolai got excited and fired several bullets “into the milk” - on a hunch, not knowing where exactly the enemy shooter was holed up. To force the enemy to show himself, Ilyin will use the simplest sniper method - he raised his helmet above the parapet on his rifle. The Nazi instantly made a hole in it. Nikolai spotted the location of the outbreak, crawled into a spare trench and began to wait. The German could not stand it and leaned out to see whether he had shot the Soviet sniper or not. A branch swayed, and the face of a fascist appeared there. Curiosity cost Fritz his life. But, as Ilyin always emphasized, in that duel he faced an inexperienced opponent, and Nikolai won thanks not to endurance, but to cunning.
A sniper platoon under the command of Ilyin successfully shot at the Nazis and, as a result, was twice included in the Sovinformburo reports. For example, over 4 days in June 1943, 20 Ilyinsky snipers shot 123 fascists.

Didn't have time to finish the count

Ilyin died in the battle for the village of Yastreboevoye (Kursk region) on July 25, 1943. Having destroyed 35 Nazis in this fierce battle, he was killed by a machine gun burst when he was aiming at the thirty-sixth. Thus, Nikolai’s combat account included 494 enemy soldiers and officers. The legendary sniper rifle was handed over to Sergeant Gordienko, a sniper from Ilyin’s platoon. Afanasy Gordienko died in the same year, 1943, in a battle near Kharkov, and the rifle was subsequently transferred to the Central Museum of the USSR Armed Forces.