No matter how bitter it is to admit, there were collaborators among the Heroes of the Soviet Union. Even the “Panfilov hero” turned out to be an accomplice of the enemy. It is known that the soldiers of the 316th Rifle Division (later the 8th Guards) under the command of Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov, who participated in 1941, were called Panfilovites.
In the defense of Moscow. Among the soldiers of the division, the most famous were 28 people (“Panfilov heroes” or “28 Panfilov heroes”) from the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment. According to a widely spread version of events, on November 16, when a new enemy offensive against Moscow began, soldiers of the 4th company, led by political instructor V.G. Klochkov, in the area of the Dubosekovo junction, 7 kilometers southeast of Volokolamsk, accomplished a feat, destroying 18 enemy tanks during a 4-hour battle. All 28 heroes died (later they began to write “almost all”). The official version of the feat was studied by the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR and recognized as literary fiction. According to the director State Archive Russia, Professor Sergei Mironenko, “there were no 28 Panfilov heroes - this is one of the myths propagated by the state.” At the same time, the very fact of heavy defensive battles of the 316th Infantry Division against the 2nd and 11th German tank divisions in the Volokolamsk direction on November 16, 1941 is beyond doubt. Conclusion of the investigation of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office: “Thus, the investigation materials have established that the feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is an invention of the correspondent Koroteev, the editor of “Red Star” Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky” (47).
The fate of the “Panfilov hero” Dobrobabin (Dobrobaba) Ivan Evstafievich turned out to be unusual. On November 16, 1941, Dobrobabin, being part of a combat guard at the Dubosekovo junction, was covered with earth in a trench during the battle and was considered dead. Finding himself behind enemy lines, he was captured by the Germans and placed in the Mozhaisk prisoner of war camp, from which he escaped or was released as a Ukrainian. At the beginning of March 1942, he arrived home in the village of Perekop, Valkovsky district, Kharkov region, which by that time was occupied by the Germans.
In June, Dobrobabin voluntarily joined the police and until November of the same year served as a policeman at the Kovyagi station, where he guarded the railway line, ensuring the movement of fascist trains. Then he was transferred to the police of the village of Perekop, where until March 1943 he served as a policeman and chief of the guard shift. In early March, during the liberation of the village by Soviet troops, Dobrobabin and other police officers were arrested by a special department, but due to the retreat of our army, he was freed. After the village was reoccupied by the Nazis, he continued to serve in the police, was appointed deputy chief, and in June 1943 - chief of the rural police. He was armed with a carbine and a revolver.
While serving in the police, Dobrobabin participated in sending Soviet citizens to forced labor in Germany, carried out searches, seized livestock from peasants, detained persons who violated the occupation regime, and participated in interrogations of detainees, demanding the extradition of communists and Komsomol members of the village. In July 1943, the police officers subordinate to him detained and sent to a concentration camp the former Soviet soldier Semenov. During the retreat of the Nazis in August 1943, Dobrobabin fled to the Odessa region and, during the liberation of the occupied territory by Soviet troops, hiding his police service, he was drafted into the army. In 1948, he was sentenced to 15 years for collaboration with the Nazi occupiers and the decree on awarding him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was canceled. In 1955, the prison term was reduced to 7 years, and Dobrobabin was released. He sought rehabilitation, but was denied rehabilitation. Rehabilitated by a decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated March 26, 1993. Died in 1996 in the city of Tsimlyansk.
How difficult the fate of the “fascist collaborators” were during the war can be seen in the example of Pyotr Konstantinovich Mesnyankin (1919-1993), a lieutenant in the Soviet Army, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (1943), deprived of his rank and awards due to condemnation. Mesnyankin was born in the village of Komyakino (now the territory of the Ivaninsky district of the Kursk region) in the family of a wealthy peasant. In the 1930s Mesnyankin's family was subjected to dispossession and deportation to the Arkhangelsk region. A few years after the deportation, she managed to move to Kharkov, where Mesnyankin graduated from high school in 1939 and entered a technical school. In the fall of 1939, he was drafted into the army and served in the 275th Artillery Regiment. From June 1941 - at the front, took part in the Battle of Smolensk and the Elninsk operation. In November 1941, Mesnyankin’s unit was surrounded and he was captured. He was kept in the Oryol prison, from where he escaped at the beginning of 1942 and returned to his native village. In February 1942, having no means of subsistence, he joined the police. He held the positions of assistant chief of police, investigator of the magistrate's court at the district government, and from December 1942 - chief of police. During his service in the police, he gained the respect of the local population for the fact that “he did not commit atrocities, but, on the contrary, arrested only policemen and elders who committed outrages against residents.” After the liberation of the area by units of the Red Army, he did not flee from the village; he was arrested and interrogated in a special department of one of the formations. Upon request local residents escaped the death penalty, and by decision of the Military Council of the 60th Army he was sent to a penal company for a period of three months. He served his sentence in the 9th separate army penal company. During his stay in the penal company, he was wounded three times and was early released from punishment. Upon returning to the unit, at the request of SMERSH employees, he was re-sent to a penal unit - the 263rd separate army penal company. After his release from the penal company, Mesnyankin fought in the 1285th Infantry Regiment of the 60th Infantry Division of the 65th Army, and was the commander of a 45-mm gun crew. He distinguished himself during the Battle of the Dnieper. On October 17, 1943, in the area of the village of Radul, Repkinsky district, Chernigov region, Mesnyankin, using improvised means, together with his gun crew, crossed the Dnieper and, gaining a foothold on the right bank, destroyed several enemy firing points with artillery fire, “which facilitated the crossing of other units to the bridgehead” ( 48).
On October 30, 1943, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, for “the exemplary execution of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism displayed,” Red Army soldier Pyotr Mesnyankin was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and medal “ Gold Star" number 1541, becoming the first hero in the regiment. After the end of the war, he remained to serve in the Soviet Army. He graduated from artillery school, received the rank of lieutenant, and commanded a training platoon of the 690th artillery regiment of the 29th separate guards Latvian rifle brigade. April 5, 1948 Hero of the Soviet Union Lieutenant
Mesnyankin was arrested and urgently transferred to Moscow. In the Main Counterintelligence Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security, he was charged with treason, expressed in the fact that he “... as coming from a kulak family, surrendered to the Germans and collaborated with them in the territory of the temporarily occupied Kursk region... Living in the village of Komyakino Ivaninsky district Mesnyankin began restoring his former kulak household, moved into a house that had previously been confiscated from them, called relatives to his place, and in February 1942 he voluntarily enlisted in the German punitive authorities... carried out searches, took away food and belongings from local residents , arrested Soviet citizens, interrogated them and carried out pro-fascist agitation; the property taken from the collective farmers was transferred through the “magistrate’s” court to the kulaks who returned to the region; handed over 10 communists and Komsomol members to the German punitive authorities, against whom he was investigating; took part in the execution of the former chairman of the collective farm, communist Rassolov...”
By a resolution of the Special Meeting of the USSR Ministry of State Security dated August 21, 1948, Mesnyankin was sentenced to 10 years in forced labor camps. He served his sentence in the Vorkuta camps and worked in the medical unit. In 1954 he was released early from the camp. By a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 7, 1955, the criminal record was expunged. He lived in Kharkov, worked on a state farm as a foreman of a vegetable growing team. He repeatedly sent petitions for reinstatement of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but they were all rejected. Pyotr Mesnyankin died on July 14, 1993. He was buried in the 3rd city cemetery of Kharkov (49).
The fate of Stalin and Vlasov’s “falcon” Semyon Trofimovich Bychkov (1918-1946) - a Soviet military pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union (1943), deprived of titles and awards in 1947 for participation in the “Vdasov” movement during the Great Patriotic War, was also striking. Patriotic War. He was born on May 15, 1918 in the village of Petrovka, Nizhnedevitsky district, Voronezh region. Graduated from the flying club (1938), Borisoglebsk Aviation School named after V.P. Chkalova (1939). Since 1939 he served in the 12th reserve aviation regiment. From January 30, 1940 - junior lieutenant, from March 25, 1942 - lieutenant, then senior lieutenant, from July 20, 1942 - deputy squadron commander. In 1942, for committing the accident, he was sentenced by a military tribunal to 5 years of forced labor camps, to be served after the war. That same year, the conviction was overturned. From May 28, 1943 - captain. In 1943 - navigator of the 937th Fighter Aviation Regiment, deputy commander of the 482nd Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 322nd Fighter Division. For distinction in battles he was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner. On September 2, 1943, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal for personally shooting down 15 enemy aircraft (in addition, he shot down one aircraft in a group).
The presentation for the award noted that Bychkov “proved himself to be an excellent fighter pilot, who combines courage with great skill. He enters the battle boldly and decisively, carries it out at a fast pace, imposes his will on the enemy, using his weaknesses. He proved himself to be an excellent commander and organizer of group air battles.” On December 10, 1943, Bychkov was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft artillery fire and taken prisoner wounded. He was held in prison camps. At the beginning of 1944, Colonel Viktor Maltsev, who had been collaborating with the German authorities since 1941, convinced him to join the Ostland aviation group.
During the investigation in 1946, Bychkov claimed that he took this step under extreme pressure, since another Hero of the Soviet Union, Bronislav Antilevsky, who by that time was already collaborating with the Germans, allegedly beat him. According to other sources, Bychkov decided to go over to the enemy’s side voluntarily, and they were friends with Antilevsky. He took part in ferrying aircraft from aircraft factories to field airfields on the Eastern Front, as well as in anti-partisan combat operations in the Dvinsk region. Together with Antilevsky, he addressed the captured pilots in writing and orally with calls to cooperate with the Germans. After the disbandment of the Ostland group in September 1944, Bychkov, under the leadership of Maltsev, took an active part in the formation of the 1st aviation regiment of the ROA Air Force, and became the commander of the 5th fighter squadron, which was armed with 16 aircraft. On February 5, 1945 he was promoted to major. At the end of April 1945 he surrendered to American troops, along with other “Vlasov” pilots he was interned in the French city of Cherbourg and in September 1945 he was handed over to the Soviet authorities. On August 24, 1946, he was sentenced to death by the military tribunal of the Moscow Military District. The sentence was carried out in Moscow on November 4 of the same year (50: 22-30).
Bronislav Romanovich Antilevsky (1916-1946) was a Stalin and Vlasov “falcon” - a Soviet military pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union (1940), deprived of titles and awards in 1950. Born in 1916 in the village of Markovtsy, Uzdensky district of Minsk region in a peasant family. Pole. Graduated from technical school (1937), special purpose aviation school in Monino (1938), Kachinsky Red Banner Military Aviation School (1942). From October 1937 he served in the Red Army. During the Soviet-Finnish War, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. Since April 1942 - junior lieutenant, participated in the Great Patriotic War as part of the 20th Fighter Regiment of the 303rd Fighter Division of the 1st Air Army.
On August 28, 1943, the deputy squadron commander, Senior Lieutenant Antilevsky, was shot down in an air battle and captured. He was held in prisoner camps. At the end of 1943 he joined the Ostland aviation group. Like Semyon Bychkov, he participated in aircraft ferrying and in anti-partisan combat operations, and urged captured pilots to cooperate with the Germans. After the disbandment of the Ostland group, he took an active part in the formation of the 1st Aviation Regiment of the ROA Air Force. From December 19, 1944, he was commander of the 2nd attack squadron of night attack aircraft. On February 5, 1945, he was promoted to captain. He was awarded two German medals and a personalized watch. In April 1945, Antilevsky's squadron took part in the fighting on the Oder against the Red Army.
There is information that at the end of April 1945 Antilevsky was supposed to pilot the plane on which General Andrei Vlasov was supposed to fly to Spain, but Vlasov refused to flee.
He was interned from the American sector of Germany in September 1945. On July 25, 1946, he was sentenced to death by the military tribunal of the Moscow Military District under Article 58-1 “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. The sentence was carried out on the same day (51: 17-22).
It is believed that the third Hero of the Soviet Union in the ROA may have been Ivan Ivanovich Tennikov, a career pilot, Tatar by nationality. Carrying out a combat mission to cover Stalingrad on September 15, 1942 over Zaikovsky Island, he fought with enemy fighters, rammed a German Messerschmitt-110, shot it down and survived. There is a version that for this feat he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but his name is not on the list of people who were deprived of this title. Tennikov served in Soviet aviation until the fall of 1943, when he was shot down and considered missing.
While in a prisoner of war camp, he entered the service of German intelligence and was then transferred to the Vlasov army. Due to health reasons, he was unable to fly and served as a propaganda officer. Nothing is known about the further fate of this man after April 1945. According to documents of the Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, he is still listed as missing (104).
The fate of the Heroes of the Soviet Union father and son Sokolov was also difficult. Emelyan Lukich Sokol was born in 1904 in the village of Pomerki, Lebedinsky district, Sumy region of Ukraine. Graduated from six classes. In 1941-1943. Sokol lived with his family in territory temporarily occupied by German troops. After his release, he was drafted into the army and became a machine gunner in the 1144th Infantry Regiment of the 340th Infantry Division of the 38th Army of the Voronezh Front. His son Grigory, born in 1924, served with him in the same machine-gun crew. Both were awarded medals "For Courage". Father and son distinguished themselves during the Battle of the Dnieper, October 3, 1943, when repelling an attack by enemy units, they cut off infantry from tanks with machine-gun fire, and then destroyed a tank and an armored personnel carrier. After that, Grigory Sokol used a grenade to destroy the track of the second German tank.
After the end of the battle, it was reported to the headquarters that Emelyan and Grigory Sokoly had died, and on January 10, 1944, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, “for the courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders,” they were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. After the war, it turned out that father and son Sokoly remained alive; it turned out that they had replaced the “death medallions” of the killed soldiers and surrendered. According to some reports, Emelyan Sokol, while in captivity, served as head of the prisoner of war barracks, and then joined the police and became the head of the department. On May 5, 1945, he was released from captivity by Czechoslovak partisans. After passing the test, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. In 1945, Emelyan Sokol was transferred to the reserve, returned to his native village, and worked on a collective farm (52).
According to some reports, while in captivity, Sokol Jr. served as the head of the investigation department of the police. On May 5, 1945, he, like his father, was released from captivity by Czechoslovak partisans. After passing the test, he was also awarded the Gold Star medal and the Order of Lenin. He continued his military service as a sergeant major in a military bakery. In April 1947, Grigory Sokol was transferred to the reserve, returned to his native village and also began working on a collective farm (53). In 1947, father and son Sokoly were arrested by Ministry officials state security USSR on charges of voluntary surrender. The court sentenced the father to 10 years and the son to 8 years in forced labor camps. November 14, 1947. The Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of January 10, 1944 on awarding them the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union was canceled. After serving their sentences, they both returned to their native village. The father died in 1985, and the son in 1999.
Heroes of the Soviet Union Ivan Kilyushek, Pyotr Kutsy, Nikolai Litvinenko and Georgy Vershinin also turned out to be accomplices of the enemy. Kilyushek Ivan Sergeevich was born on December 19, 1923 in the village of Ostrov, Rivne region of Ukraine. At the beginning of the war he found himself in occupied territory. After liberation in March 1944, Kilyushek was drafted into the army and within three months distinguished himself during the crossing of the Western Dvina River. On July 22, 1944, Kilyushek was awarded the title of Hero, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal for “the courage and bravery shown during the capture and retention of the bridgehead on the banks of the Western Dvina River.” On July 23, 1944, Kilyushek received a month's leave to his homeland, and on August 10, militants of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army broke into his house and kidnapped him. It is not known for certain whether Kilyushek gave voluntary consent to the armed struggle against the “Muscovites”, or was forcibly held by the militants, but on March 14, 1945, he was arrested in the attic of his house with a machine gun in his hands. He was accused of counter-revolutionary activities, participation in the execution of a partisan family of five people, including two children, and the recruitment of youth into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
During the investigation, Kilyushek admitted guilt, but justified himself by saying that he was forced into the formation of the UPA and remained there only under the threat of reprisals against his family. On September 29, 1945, the military tribunal of the 13th Army sentenced Kilyushek to 10 years in prison with disqualification for 5 years and confiscation of property. In 1958 he was released and lived in the Irkutsk region. In 2009, during the opening of a bunker in the Volyn region, in which the UPA formation was based during the war, Kilyushek’s “Gold Star” medal was discovered (54).
Kutsy Petr Antonovich also found himself in occupied territory at the beginning of the war. In the spring of 1942, Kutsy joined the police commandant's office of the neighboring village of Velykiy Krupol, Zgurovsky district, Kyiv region, which was headed by his father, and his uncle was the secretary. He took part in the abduction of Soviet citizens to Germany and raids on partisans, during which he was wounded twice. After the liberation of the area, he was called up to serve in the Red Army, where he served as commander of a section of the 1318th Infantry Regiment. On the night of October 1–2, 1943, Kutsyi and his squad crossed to Zhukovka Island on the southern outskirts of Kyiv, recaptured it from German units, thereby ensuring the crossing of other units of his regiment. October 29, 1943 By Decree
From the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, for “the exemplary execution of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism displayed,” Red Army soldier Pyotr Kutsy was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
At the beginning of 1953, together with two comrades, Kutsy came to his native village and started a fight in a club there, during which he beat the chairman of the village council. In February 1953 he was arrested. The Berezansky District Court of the Kyiv Region sentenced Pyotr Kutsy to 5 years in prison. A few days later he was released under the “Beria amnesty”, but during the investigation, testimony against him was given by fellow villagers who fought in partisan detachments during the war. On their basis, a petition was written, and by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of January 30, 1954, for “misdemeanors discrediting the title of order bearer,” Pyotr Kutsy was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (55).
Nikolai Vladimirovich Litvinenko also found himself in German-occupied territory at the beginning of the war. In December 1941, he began to cooperate with the occupation authorities. At first he worked as a statistician in an agricultural community in his native village, then as a secretary of the village government. Since March 1942, Litvinenko has served in the German police. As a police officer, he took part in punitive operations against partisans in the Sumy, Chernihiv and Poltava regions, and also guarded against partisans settlements. In August 1943, during the advance of the Red Army, he was evacuated to the Vinnitsa region, to the rear of the German troops, where he remained until the arrival of Soviet troops, and in January 1944 he was mobilized into the active army. On September 23, 1944, for “exemplary fulfillment of command assignments and demonstrated courage and heroism in battles with the Nazi invaders,” junior sergeant Nikolai Litvinenko was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In January 1945, Sergeant Major Litvinenko was sent to study at the infantry school in Riga, and in June 1946 the facts of his betrayal were revealed. In August 1946, Litvinenko was arrested, and on October 11 of the same year, the military tribunal of the South Ural Military District was sentenced to 10 years in prison with disqualification for 3 years. On October 14, 1947, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Litvinenko was stripped of all titles and awards. Nothing is known about his further fate (56).
Vershinin Georgy Pavlovich served as a squad commander in the sapper and demolition company of the 23rd Airborne Brigade of the 10th Airborne Corps. He distinguished himself during operations in the German rear, when on May 29 - June 3, 1942, the 23rd Airborne Brigade of 4,000 people was landed on the territory of the Dorogobuzhsky district of the Smolensk region. The brigade was tasked with ensuring a way out of the encirclement of the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps of Major General Belov and the 4th Airborne Corps of Major General Kazankin.
On the night of June 3, 1942, the battalion of the airborne brigade in which Vershinin served secretly approached the village of Volochek, destroyed German patrols, broke into the village, destroyed more than 50 German soldiers and officers and captured 2 armored personnel carriers and 4 mortars. A German tank column passed near the village, whose tankers made a halt next to the paratroopers’ ambush. The tankers who got out of their vehicles were destroyed and 22 tanks were captured. Repelling the attack, Vershinin's squad destroyed the bridge across the river along with the three German tanks on it. Holding back the enemy until nightfall, the paratroopers retreated, having completed their main task - to pull back part of the enemy forces to allow the encircled corps to break out of the encirclement. Junior Sergeant Vershinin was considered killed in the explosion of the bridge, and on March 31, 1943, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for “courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders.” In fact, Vershinin remained alive and ended up in German captivity. Under interrogation, he revealed all the information he knew about the landing, expressed a desire to serve in the German armed forces, and already in June 1942 he was enlisted in the auxiliary security battalion. He served as a guard on a railway bridge behind German lines. For sleeping while on duty, he was arrested and sent to a prisoner of war camp, where he fell ill with typhus. After recovery in May 1943, he again entered service with the Germans in a working sapper battalion. He collaborated with the Germans until June 1944 and, during the defeat of German troops in Belarus, went over to the partisans. When the partisans joined forces with the Red Army, he was transferred to SMERSH and was tested in a filtration camp in the Murmansk region, where he worked as a driller at the Severonickel plant. On February 28, 1945, Vershinin was arrested. On July 6, 1945, the military tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Murmansk region sentenced him to 10 years in forced labor camps with loss of rights for 5 years, confiscation of property and deprivation of awards. Died January 1, 1966 (57).
Heroes on trial: why they were deprived of the most honorable title in Russia and the USSR
In the spring of 2016, the Cheboksary court made a historic decision. Awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, he was deprived of it by a court verdict.
Evgeny Borisov, who received the title of Hero of Russia during the Second Chechen Campaign, was deprived of it and punished with a fine of 10 million rubles and imprisonment for a term of 6.5 years for organizing an underground casino and attempting to bribe an official.
Although Heroes of Russia have previously been brought to court as defendants in criminal cases (and there are about a thousand Heroes of Russia in total), in previous cases the courts did not deprive them of this title - only cases of deprivation of the Order of Courage are known. In the Soviet Union there were much more such cases.
Throughout the history of the USSR, 12.8 thousand people received the title of Hero (12,776 excluding those who were deprived of the title or whose award was canceled due to other circumstances). In total, more than 70 cases of deprivation of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union are known for the inconsistency of the actions of the recipient of the high title. Another 61 people were stripped of their rank, but it was later restored. As a rule, this happened if their cases were related to political repression, and all awards were returned to the person after his rehabilitation (often posthumously).
For convenience, we will divide all cases of deprivation of awards - and therefore a whole package of benefits and additional payments - into separate categories and present the most interesting stories.
Defectors
Even heroes could not always withstand the hardships of captivity. Some of them cooperated with the Germans. Two Soviet hero pilots Bronislav Antilevsky and Semyon Bychkov were shot down during combat missions in 1943 and were captured. Both later joined Vlasov’s ROA, which fought against the USSR. The pilots were real masters, and Bychkov, before going over to the enemy’s side, had 15 downed planes and a whole “iconostasis” on his chest: two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Courage, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star.
If for other defendants the presence of awards and especially the title of Hero was, as a rule, a mitigating factor, then in the case of defectors and traitors this was clearly considered as an aggravating factor. Both pilots were shot, although they did not really take part in the hostilities on the enemy’s side.
One of the Panfilov heroes, Ivan Dobrobabin, who participated in the battle at the Dubosekovo crossing, was awarded the title of Hero posthumously for this battle. It later turned out that journalists significantly embellished the events of that day - and even buried him ahead of time. In fact, he survived the shell shock and was captured. He escaped from captivity and returned to his native village, which was then occupied by the Germans. At home, Dobrobabin became the headman and served in the police. After the liberation of the village, he fled to his relatives in another village, where he was drafted into the Soviet army for the second time, after which he fought conscientiously until the end of the war.
In 1947 he was arrested on suspicion of collaboration with the Germans. As a result, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and forfeited all awards. Later the term was reduced to 7 years. Until the end of his life, Dobrobabin tried to challenge the deprivation of his awards, proving that he had not committed any crimes in the service of the Germans, but was forced to serve under duress, but the awards were never returned to him.
But Ivan Kilyushek lost his awards because of his own stubbornness. He distinguished himself in battle just two months after being drafted into the army. In honor of the feat, Kilyushek, who was awarded the Star of the Hero, received a month's leave and at home found himself in the ranks of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which also fought for the Reich. At the very end of the war, Kilyushek was arrested in the attic of his own house with a weapon in his hands. He himself tried to prove that he was kidnapped and forced to serve in the UPA under the threat of reprisals against his family. The court sentenced him to 10 years in prison, but did not deprive him of his awards. Having been released, Kilyushin tried to appeal the verdict for several years, but this only worsened the situation. In 1972, he was stripped of the title of Hero of the Union.
Artilleryman Alexey Kulak was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero after the war. After serving in the army, he went into science, and then went to work for the KGB, where he worked for almost 20 years. He was in good standing in the intelligence service, worked in the USA, and had many awards. In 1984 he died of cancer and was buried with all due honors. And only after his death it became clear that Kulak had been collaborating with American intelligence for at least 10 years, transferring secret information and data to Soviet intelligence officers in the United States. In 1990, Kulak was posthumously stripped of all awards and titles. This is the only case of posthumous deprivation of the title of Hero in Soviet history. However, on tombstone It is still indicated that he is a Hero of the Soviet Union.
A slightly more romantic story happened with the Hero of the USSR, Major Georgy Antonov. After the war, he remained to serve in the Soviet garrison in Austria, where he met a local woman. Since relations between them were impossible for political reasons, Antonov, who was about to be transferred from Austria to the USSR, fled to the American sector of Vienna with his lover in 1949. For this, he was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in the camps and deprived of awards. Later, he apparently changed his last name and his traces were lost.
In all seriousness
Not all heroes were able to adapt to peaceful life. Often, soldiers who went to the front at the age of 18 after the war could not find use for their abilities and had great difficulty getting along “in civilian life.”
Nikolai Artamonov was drafted in 1941 at the age of 18 and went through the entire war to the end. But he did not fit into civilian life; in the three post-war years he received three convictions, and the last crime exceeded the patience of the Soviet court, and Artamonov was sentenced to 18 years for participation in gang rape. He was also stripped of all his awards and titles.
Vasily Vanin also went through the entire war and was unable to return to normal life. Vanin, who had many awards, tried to work in a Stalingrad bakery after demobilization, but soon quit his job and began to lead antisocial image life, committed several thefts and robberies, as well as rape, for which he was deprived of all awards and sent to prison for 10 years.
The brave one-eyed tankman of the guard, senior lieutenant Anatoly Motsny, who had many awards and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, did not find himself after being discharged from the army for health reasons. After the war, he married, but soon kicked his pregnant wife out of the house and remarried. He was able to avoid punishment for bigamy thanks to numerous awards. He drank a lot, wandered around the country, hid from paying child support, and eventually brutally killed his own five-year-old son for an unknown reason. He received 10 years in prison, but was deprived of his awards after his release, after numerous complaints from neighbors whom he “terrorized every day.” He died shortly after being stripped of all awards and titles.
After demobilization, Senior Sergeant Alexander Postolyuk worked on a collective farm, from where he began his journey along the criminal road. Postolyuk was imprisoned four times for petty theft, each time getting off with a prison sentence of about a year. But he lost all his awards after his first crime.
Junior Lieutenant Anatoly Stanev returned to his native state farm, where he began to abuse alcohol, went to prison and lost all his awards. After his release, he worked as a tractor driver, continued to abuse alcohol, and died in a drunken brawl in 1953.
Egen Pilosyan went through the entire war and had no problems with discipline. Shortly before the victory he received the title of hero, after the war he had the rank of captain. Then Pilosyan’s long criminal journey began. First, he stole a car in the Allied occupation zone. Then another one, then another. For the thefts, he received 4 years in prison and was stripped of all awards. After that, he was convicted of theft and arson 4 more times, spending almost 20 years in prison. In the 70s he unsuccessfully petitioned for the return of the awards, after which his traces were lost.
Vasily Grigin set a unique record. He also went through the entire war and lost an eye at the front. After demobilization, he was convicted 10 times: for hooliganism, fights and petty theft. At the same time, he managed to retain his title of Hero for quite a long time, which he was deprived of only after his sixth conviction.
Nikolai Kulba stands apart, who even before the war led a criminal lifestyle and was convicted twice. In fact, he begged from the camps to be released to the front, where he fought very bravely. He was one of the best snipers in the division, repeatedly distinguished himself in battles, and after another injury he was awarded the title of Hero. But due to an error in the documents, it was not possible to find him immediately, and Kulba did not even know about his award. They found him only in the late 50s. Then it turned out that after the war he returned to his previous profession and was convicted twice more of committing serious crimes. As a result, by decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces, he was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Crimes in service
A significant part of the Soviet army was demobilized after the end of the war and returned home. However, some soldiers continued to serve in Soviet garrisons in Europe and the USSR, where they committed acts unworthy of their high title of Hero.
By the end of the war, Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Kukushkin had flown one and a half hundred combat missions on an Il-2 attack aircraft, was shot down over enemy territory and was able to get to his own. After the war he continued to serve in Hungary. In 1948, a division officer noticed him drunk in the company of a local girl. The conflict ended with Kukushkin taking out a pistol and shooting the lieutenant colonel, after which he shot himself in the head, but only wounded himself. According to the verdict of the tribunal, he was deprived of awards and titles and sentenced to 25 years, later the term was reduced to 10, Kukushkin was released early in 1956.
In Germany, several of our military men created an entire gang that robbed the local population. It included two heroes of the Soviet Union at once - Lieutenant Antonov and Sergeant Loktionov. If Antonov simply encouraged the actions of his subordinates, then Loktionov directly took part in them, and also became involved in rape. Later, both were stripped of all awards and titles, but Antonov managed to achieve the return of all awards in the 60s.
Ivan Mironenko, at the age of 19, was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR. After the war, the young soldier continued to serve in Hungary, but this did not last long. In 1947, together with several colleagues, he went AWOL; they hired a taxi, after which they killed the driver, and tried to sell the car in Budapest. Mironenko, like a hero, escaped with 10 years in the camps, but lost his awards.
The title of Hero was also taken away for outright hooliganism. Mironenko’s peer Vladimir Pasyukov continued to serve in Soviet garrisons after the war, but began to skip work, often went AWOL, drank, fought with officials, and finally, due to a combination of hooligan actions, was sentenced to 7 years in camps and deprived of awards.
Wartime sins
Sometimes the basis for deprivation of a high rank was unpleasant facts from the past that discredited the Hero.
Boris Lunin commanded a partisan brigade in Belarus. In 1941, he was captured, but managed to escape and join the partisans. Despite his alcoholism and craving for arbitrariness, he was in good standing with his superiors thanks to the successful sabotage activities of the partisan group. He got away with several episodes of arbitrariness, one of which, due to a personal conflict, he ordered the execution of eight Soviet intelligence officers who joined the partisan brigade after leaving Minsk. In 1944 he was awarded the Gold Star. The echo of war overtook the hero of the Union Lunin already in 1957, when he was arrested for numerous previous episodes of lynchings against Soviet citizens, including children. Considering his military merits, he received not the most severe punishment - 7 years in prison plus deprivation of all awards.
Pyotr Mesnyankin became a Hero after he managed to serve the Germans. At the beginning of the war, his unit was surrounded and captured. Mesnyankin fled and returned to his native village, occupied by the Germans, where he got a job with the police. After the liberation of the village, he was again mobilized into the Soviet army; as punishment for collaborating with the Germans, he was sent to a penal battalion, where he was wounded several times. Mesnyankin distinguished himself while crossing the Dnieper, for which he was awarded the title of Hero. However, a few years after the war, he was arrested, sentenced to 10 years in the camps and deprived of awards for cooperation with the Germans. Later, he repeatedly tried to get the awards returned, pointing out that he had already been punished for working for the Germans by being sent to a penal battalion, but he never managed to return the awards.
A similar fate awaited Yegor Sidorenko. At the beginning of the war, the unit was surrounded, he was wounded, was able to avoid captivity and returned to his village, where he became a policeman. After the liberation of the village, he was again drafted into the army, and in 1944 he became a Hero of the Union. After the war, he was expelled from the party and deprived of awards for losing his party card and serving with the Germans, but was not brought to criminal liability.
Here it is appropriate to tell why in the occupied villages people joined the police: the Germans paid a fixed salary and this was one of the few opportunities to survive, since under the occupation the village economy actually did not work. Even if there was a garden, the harvest could be taken away. After the war, Russian police were punished for “collaborating with the occupiers”: indeed, sometimes they were involved in searching for partisans in the forests. For service in the police after the war, they were given 7-10 years in the camps, but if fellow villagers testified that the policeman helped the partisans and worked poorly for the Germans, then there was a chance to avoid prison.
Economic crimes
A separate category of heroes put on trial are business executives. If hooligan youth, as a rule, got into trouble immediately after the war, not getting used to peaceful life, then in this case the crimes were often committed many years after the Second World War. Nikolai Arsenyev, a war hero who rose to the rank of general, received 8 years in prison in 1962 for repeated theft of state property, embezzlement and abuse of power.
Ivan Medvedev was demobilized after the war and worked as a department head in Petrovsky Passage (the store was opened in Moscow on Petrovka Street back in 1906). Soon Medvedev was arrested for embezzlement and sentenced to 15 years in prison and deprived of the title of Hero of the USSR.
Some did "combos". Squadron commander Anatoly Sinkov served in Korea after the war, where he raped and robbed a local woman, for which he received 7 years in the camps and was deprived of awards, and later in the USSR he arbitrarily embezzled 3 thousand rubles (in today’s money this is about 100 thousand rubles) , belonging to the organization in which he worked. True, he didn’t have to sit for long the second time; he was granted amnesty that same year.
It is curious that in Stalin's times, economic crimes were often punished much more seriously than crimes against the person - embezzlement or theft was sometimes given a longer sentence than for murder or violence.
As a rule, the presence of awards greatly facilitated the fate of the defendants. Even for serious crimes, in most cases they received no maximum terms punishment, if these were not property crimes, which were sometimes punished more severely than murder.
The most serious crime in those days was treason, and most of the heroes lost their lives precisely because of it. In only one case was a Hero of the Soviet Union executed for murder in civilian life. We are talking about the pilot Pyotr Poloz, who committed a double murder in 1962. His fate was determined by the fact that those killed were Fomichev, an employee of Khrushchev’s own personal security, and his wife, whom Lieutenant Colonel Poloz invited to visit. The circumstances of the crime and its motives remained unknown. The court sentenced him to death, thus Poloz became the only executed Hero of the Union who was not executed for going over to the enemy’s side.
Most of the Heroes who lost their awards can be divided into two categories: young people who grew up in the war, who, because of their carelessness and dashing prowess, got into bad stories, and older people who did not find use for their abilities in peaceful life, who were unable to return to peaceful life. The war continued to live inside them in the form of stuck fragments and aching wounds.
Every ninetieth Hero of the Soviet Union was subsequently deprived of a high rank
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union is the highest honor in the huge state that existed from 1922 to 1991. The first to receive this title polar pilots who participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites - passengers and crew members of a ship stuck in the ice in 1934.
The very first Hero in the USSR was Anatoly Lyapidevsky, the most recent – captain of the second rank Leonid Solodkov for “successful completion of a special command assignment and the courage and heroism shown at the same time”: the order to reward Solodkov was signed on December 24, 1991, and the next day the USSR ceased to exist.
In total, 12,862 people were awarded the title of Hero (another 26 awards were “doubles” - when a person was accidentally included in two award lists for the same feat). But not everyone managed to remain Heroes to the end: 148 people were deprived of this title (all were men). Let's talk about how this could happen.
Not military “affairs” at all
According to Soviet law, there were two ways to deprive the title of Hero. Either the authorities recognized that the person was worthy of the award, but subsequently, through his behavior, showed himself not to deserve such a high honor - or they canceled the very fact of conferring the title. 133 people ceased to be Heroes according to the first scenario, 15 - according to the second. Often, however, there was a double cancellation: 63 “dispossessed” had their titles subsequently returned. Most often - posthumously.
With the cancellation of the fact of appropriation, everything is clear - the feats were declared invalid (we will talk about the most striking of these cases below). Twice, however, the commission subsequently came to the conclusion that the repeal of the Decrees was unfounded; partisans Alexander Krivets he even lived to see justice restored in 1991 (in 1980 he was accused of exaggerating his own merits).
As for the deprivation of a legally assigned title, its main and only reason is the crimes committed by a person after receiving the award. In the vast majority of cases, this is an ordinary “criminal”: theft, robbery, rape, murder. Noticeably less common are political affairs: being in captivity, participating in the Russian Liberation Army (“Vlasovites”), or simply falling under the skating rink of Beria’s repressions.
Here are examples of genuine criminal cases:
- Sentenced to 12 years in prison for committing murder...
- Committed a criminal offense (murder or complicity in the murder of his 12-year-old son)…
- Convicted under Article 119 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (sexual intercourse with a person who has not reached puberty)…
- While intoxicated, together with his colleagues he organized an illegal check of passengers on an electric train, took money from them...
- Committed a criminal offense (robbed a store and killed a watchman)...
- He has accumulated ten convictions, including malicious hooliganism, theft, and intentional infliction of bodily harm. State awards were taken away during the sixth verdict...
- He committed the theft of a weapon from a police officer, several robberies of passers-by, rape...
But cooperation with the occupiers and political articles:
- Together with his wife, he fled from the area where his unit was deployed to the American sector of Vienna (Austria). Convicted in absentia on September 7, 1949 for treason...
- Voluntarily joined and participated in the activities of the Russian Liberation Army. Shot...
- He was captured and voluntarily joined the police. He held the position of chief of rural police...
- In 1982 he emigrated to permanent place residence in the USA (the most ridiculous of reasons for such harsh measures; after 17 years Mikhail Grabsky returned the well-deserved title of Hero)…
- Arrested on charges of anti-communist propaganda, convicted of “treason to the Motherland”...
- Convicted by a Special Meeting of the USSR MGB under Art. 58-10, part I (espionage)…
- Convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR under Article 58-10 Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda)...
- Sentenced to death by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on August 24, 1950 under articles 58-11 (creation of a counter-revolutionary organization), 58-1b (attempted treason), 58-8 (attempted to commit a terrorist act against the leaders of the USSR) ...
For most of the political charges, those convicted were subsequently rehabilitated; in this case, the title of Hero, as a rule, was returned automatically. As for criminals, here it was used individual approach: rapists and murderers, as a rule, did not receive their titles back (only in two such cases, one of them was when a convicted rapist Ivan Chernets after his release he became a Soviet writer Ivan Arsentiev), but embezzlers and hooligans had a good chance of returning the lost reward.
wandering stars
There were also more complex cases. Let's say, chief marshal of artillery (the highest possible rank in the USSR, not counting “generalissimo” Joseph Stalin) Sergey Varentsov in 1963 he was stripped of the title of Hero and demoted with the wording “for dulling of political vigilance and unworthy actions”: the fact is that his adjutant during the war, and then his relative, was Oleg Penkovsky, subsequently exposed as the most effective American spy in history. The title of Hero was not returned to Varentsov even in those years when Penkovsky himself began to be perceived almost as a hero.
The topic of Heroes of the Soviet Union, it would seem, should already be closed. After Leonid Solodkov was awarded, the Heroes of the USSR were replaced by Heroes of Independent States, and the revision of old awards and their deprivation seems to have stopped long ago.
The last one to be deprived of the title of Hero of the USSR Alexey Kulak: In 1990, six years after his death, it became known that he was working for foreign intelligence.
Ten years later it seems to have happened last return ranks - in the mentioned case with the emigrant Mikhail Grabsky.
But more recently, in 2013, the title of Hero was returned to another person - who died forty years earlier Nikolay Kudryashov, hero of the liberation of Kyiv. He was deprived of all awards back in 1953, when he was convicted of “hooliganism, intentionally causing minor bodily injury and illegal possession of firearms.” And now, sixty years later, by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, justice was restored. Kudryashov's platoon destroyed several hundred Nazis in the battles on Pushcha-Voditsa and Khreshchatyk - it is unlikely that one drunken brawl could negate this contribution to the Victory.
Feather shark
Let’s talk in detail about the most unique “disenfranchised” - the only person who became a Hero thanks to outright fraud, and not, say, appropriation of other people’s exploits, which sometimes happened during the Great Patriotic War (remember, for example, the song Vladimir Vysotsky“About Seryozhka Fomin”).
A Ural boy from a poor family, Volodya Golubenko I started stealing very early. He was caught pickpocketing in 1933 (he was 19 years old), received five years, but was released early. Convicted again in 1937 of theft and forgery. Managed to escape from Dmitrovlag, stole documents from a random fellow traveler - and began a new life under the name Valentina Purgina, who, by the way, was five years older, which made the thief more respectable.
The fate of pickpockets in the USSR in those years was difficult - the police “for some reason” caught them, and did not protect them, so Golubenko-Purgin decided to rely on his second talent - a master of forgeries. Having forged the recommendations of the “old Bolsheviks,” he got a job in Sverdlovsk as a correspondent for the railway newspaper Putevka, and then managed to transfer to Moscow, to Gudok.
A caring son, he brought his mother with him and managed to get her a job, albeit just as a cleaner, but in the building of the Presidium of the Supreme Council! Cleaning the office Mikhail Kalinin, my mother collected several orders and award books there, and Vova-Valya began to appear in public with the Order of the Red Star.
Having met the journalists of Komsomolskaya Pravda, the fraudster gained their trust and quickly became deputy head of the military department of the newspaper. Having gone on a business trip to Khalkhin Gol, he awarded himself the Order of Lenin there, although he got a little mixed up with the documents - for some reason the nomination for the award “was formalized” by the command of the 39th division, located in the west of the country. When this discrepancy was pointed out to Purgin, he stated that he had two Orders of Lenin - for the Finnish War and for the battles with the Japanese.
They preferred not to argue with him, since the swindler hinted at his connections with the NKVD.
Emboldened by impunity, Purgin decided to also become a Hero of the Soviet Union. The 25-year-old (according to documents - 30-year-old) journalist arranged a business trip for the protracted war with the “White Finns”, and he himself stayed to drink his travel allowance in Moscow and “work with documents”.
He did not waste his talent: on the letterhead of the special 39th division he created an award sheet for himself for “heroism and courage shown in battles with the White Finns.” They did not check in detail the representation of a journalist from a good newspaper - on April 21, 1940, Valentin Petrovich Purgin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
The scammer was let down by his favorite newspaper: they published an extremely pretentious article about the Hero - and they became interested in him at the sites of the mentioned feats: how come they didn’t notice such an employee! The NKVD began an investigation... And on November 5, 1940, Vladimir Golubenko was shot.
However, there is a version that the talented scoundrel managed to achieve imprisonment instead of execution, but one way or another, his traces are lost in the darkness of time...
* * *
The Russian Federation is much less generous with the titles of Heroes - over the 26 years of the state’s existence, according to experts, just over a thousand people have been awarded this title, almost half posthumously.
Decrees on awarding the title of Hero of the Russian Federation are sometimes classified, so only the Kremlin knows the exact number of recipients. There is no information about any fact of cancellation of the Decree or deprivation of rank.
