Ilya Starinov is one of the most famous Soviet saboteurs. Thanks to his efforts, special units of the Red Army were formed, which performed their tasks in all corners of the Earth. Starinov’s contribution to the improvement of military tactics is difficult to overestimate.
For his merits, he was awarded many awards, including foreign ones.
Starinov Ilya Grigoryevich: biography
He was born in 1900 in a small village in the territory of modern Oryol region, in an ordinary peasant family. Since childhood, Ilya helped parents and worked hard. In 1917, a civil war begins. Soviet power is fighting on several fronts at once. At the age of eighteen, Ilya Starinov enters the newly created Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. Training lasts a month, after which his unit is transferred south to fight the forces of Kornilov. After the battle near Korocha, Starinov is injured, and the White Guards take him prisoner. But after a short time, the fighter makes an escape and returns to duty. After treatment, he begins his engineering career. As part of the offensive group takes part in the expulsion of Wrangel from the Crimea. After winning the Civil War for his skills, the command sends him to Voronezh for further training.
Military career
After graduating from the courses, Ilya Starinov goes to Kiev, where he commands the railway regiment. His unit is engaged in the construction of the railway. At the same time, Ilya himself is constantly studying, mastering all the subtleties of military art. Two years later, he attends courses in Leningrad.
At the age of thirty, he personally designs sabotage equipment and trains fighters. On the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, he creates units designed to conduct
partisan warfare in the event of occupation. In the thirty-third, Starinov Ilya Grigoryevich is appointed to a post in the intelligence department, whose headquarters is located in Moscow. There he meets Svechnikov, with whom he discusses various ways to improve military tactics.
Military theorist
After graduating, Starinov is appointed to the post of commandant of the railway station. His tasks include escorting senior military and political figures. In the thirties, a civil war erupted in Spain. Left-wing revolutionaries are fighting the fascist regime of Franco. The Soviet Union is supporting them. Therefore, in the thirty-sixth year, Ilya Starinov was sent to Spain as a military adviser. Using his knowledge, he trains resistance fighters. Also prepares miners and sappers. In a fairly short time, he became an adviser to the three-thousandth partisan corps. He is directly involved in the planning of operations. Thanks to the actions of Starinov, the Spanish partisans managed to blow up several trains with dignitaries, block the advance of the Francoists by rail for several days, destroy a significant amount of equipment and personnel near Madrid, and also conduct a number of other significant operations.
Homecoming
In the thirty-seventh year, Ilya Starinov returned to the USSR. Upon arrival, reports on events in Spain to Clement Voroshilov. Two years later, a new war begins. Fearing Finland’s aggression, and also seeking to secure its borders, the Red Army goes on the offensive on the Karelian Isthmus. There, Starinov is engaged in mine clearance and countering enemy saboteurs.
In the conditions of a fierce northern winter and a lack of food, Soviet troops suffered serious losses. For the skills shown during the
Finnish War, Ilya Starinov is appointed as the head of the mining department.
The Great Patriotic War
From the first days of the war, Starinov has been at the forefront. In the context of the battle with the invaders on its territory, saboteur skills are needed more than ever. In the summer of the forty-first, Starinov Ilya Grigoryevich heads the unit responsible for mining on the western front.
He personally oversees five groups that carry out sapper work and block roads from advancing enemy troops. With the rapid advance of the Wehrmacht units, the Red Army was forced to retreat east. In the first months of the war, retreat often turns into a stampede, resulting in serious casualties. Therefore, the activity of the
engineering troops turned out to be very important
.The efforts of Starinov damaged the railway near Kharkov, which greatly delayed the Nazis. An operation was also carried out to liquidate Lieutenant General Beinecker, led by Ilya Starinov. The saboteur planted a radio-controlled bomb in the general’s mansion, which was blown up during the Nazi banquet.
Organization of sabotage activities
After retreating for Don Starinov, he is in Rostov-on-Don and is engaged in minefields and sabotage. In the winter of forty-second, saboteurs crossed the Taganrog Bay and seriously damaged the highway near Mariupol. Starinov’s units also mined defense lines near Rzhev. In the summer, Ilya Grigoryevich is engaged in the preparation of partisans.
During this period, the
partisan movement is gaining strength and plays a significant role in the occupied territories. Colonel Starinov Ilya Grigoryevich prepares special-purpose saboteurs who must perform complex tasks behind enemy lines. In addition to military tactical skills, he was also an inventor. Before the war, he wrote a work on mechanics, for which in the forty-fourth year he was awarded a scientific degree. While at the Headquarters in charge of guerrilla resistance, Starinov is developing and testing experimental diversionary equipment.
In the last year of the war, he collaborates with the Resistance movement of other countries. This is primarily the Polish Army of Ludov (as well as Craiova) and the Yugoslav partisans, led by the communist Tito.
In addition, he is engaged in the preparation of Soviet partisans for their transfer to the territory of Romania, Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Ilya Starinov: biography after the war
After the end of the war, Ilya Grigoryevich was engaged in the clearance of the territory of the Soviet Union and the restoration of the railway track. He also took part in the elimination of nationalist gangs in Western Ukraine. In the fifty-sixth year he left the armed forces. He worked in various party positions. He taught courses in guerrilla and sabotage tactics. Participated in various social events. He also held a position at the Moscow Museum for some time. He lived a hundred years.