During the Great Patriotic War, soldiers of the Red Army were ready for anything, just to prevent the invaders from destroying their homeland. One example of this is the hero of the Soviet Union, Panikakh Mikhail Averyanovich. Defending his homeland, he went to his death, while destroying an enemy tank.
War is scary. She claimed so many lives that she couldn’t count. Young guys fought for our bright future. For a future without fear, a future without enemy aircraft in the sky. Paying tribute to the departed heroes, we must always remember their names and deeds.
Biography
The future hero of the USSR Mikhail Averyanovich Panikakha was born in 1914 in the village of Mogilev (now the Tsarichansky district of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine). After receiving primary education, he worked on a collective farm, helping his mother, Tatiana Arynovna Grishko. But when the peaceful sky overhead was overcast by the clouds of the impending war, Panikakha went to the front to protect his Motherland from a bleak future.
Service of Mikhail Averyanovich
Since 1939, Mikhail served in the construction battalion of the coastal defense of the Pacific Fleet on the Far East coast. One of his colleagues was the famous sniper Vasily Zaitsev.
Not wanting to stay away when the German invaders were destroying his homeland, Mikhail filed a report many times expressing his desire to serve in the war zone. In March 1942, the persistent marines were nevertheless sent to serve at the forefront. Mikhail was sent as a private to the 883th Infantry Regiment of the 193rd Infantry Division. As fellow soldiers testified, Mikhail Averyanovich Panikakha was still a sailor at heart - even fighting on the shore, he did not part with the form of the fleet. By the end of September 1942, the hero had already received the rank of deputy division commander.
Feat
The guy did not have to serve long. Mikhail Averyanovich performed his Panikakh feat at the end of September at the Battle of Stalingrad. On that day, several regiments of the division, including the 883rd, crossed the Volga and took up positions west of the Krasny Oktyabr factory. They were attacked by German troops from the 24th Panzer Division and the 71st Infantry Division.
On October 2, Panikakha, together with comrade Bederov, was in a trench and helped repel German attacks when enemy troops sent tanks. The soldiers of the Red Army met the enemy’s attack with anti-tank rifles. The soldiers coped with the first attack, but the Nazis launched new tanks. Then Mikhail Averyanovich Panikakha rushed forward. He ran out of grenades, but left two bottles with an explosive mixture. Panikakha swung to throw Molotov's cocktail at an approaching tank of opponents, but a shot of enemy weapons broke the bottle. The caustic mixture poured on the uniform of a soldier, it immediately caught fire, but there was no time for thought. Taking another bottle, the hero selflessly rushed to the tank of opponents and broke a cocktail on the grille. The German tank was set on fire, and the other tanks retreated.
The heroic feat of Mikhail raised morale from his comrades and, chasing the enemy, the soldiers set fire to two more tanks. The body of the hero was buried near the factory "Red October".
The guy was not even thirty, he did not live long in this world, but managed to become a hero. It has been 77 years since the feat of Michael, but we remember his name and will remember for many, many years to come.
Memory
Among the poems of Demian Poor is a work dedicated to the exploit of a soldier.
The monument to Mikhail Panikakh was erected in early May 1975 in the city of Volgograd, at the place where the soldier died. The authors of the sculpture were Kharitonov and Belousov. The monument is a flaming figure of a soldier. Among the people, the sculpture received the nickname "Stalingrad Danko."
His name is also inscribed on the memorial plaque on the Mamaev Kurgan. A plaque is also installed in Mogilev, Mikhail’s hometown. In mid-November 2013, a monument to the hero was unveiled in Dnepropetrovsk. In the Leningrad region, near the platform "Oranienbaum", a monument is also installed. Streets in the cities of Dnepropetrovsk, Volgograd and the village of Mogilev were named after the hero. The Volgograd Maritime School also bears the name of a hero.
The feat is captured in the panorama "Battle of Stalingrad."
The witness of the feat of Mikhail Panikikha, in addition to his comrades, was Marshal of the USSR Vasily Chuykov. In his memoirs, he colorfully described the heroic deed.
Awards
Mikhail Panikakhu, the hero of the Battle of Stalingrad, was introduced to the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union in the same year, however, relatives of Mikhail received awards 48 years after his heroic death. Among Mikhail's awards are the Golden Star medal, the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Patriotic War of the first degree.
In those days, Russians, Ukrainians and immigrants from other republics fought together against the enemy side by side, like brothers. The main goal was to resist, to stand under a hail of bullets, to defend the native land. But everything is changing. Decades have passed since the Great Patriotic War. Few of her witnesses survived to tell the secrets of unconditional love for their country, such love for which it was not a pity even for their lives.