People of the older generation, of course, remember Nikita Karatsupa, a border guard who became a legend about which much was written at the time and which was the idol of millions of Soviet boys. Only according to incomplete data, he detained three hundred and thirty-eight violators of the state border, and one hundred and twenty-nine who did not want to surrender were destroyed on the spot. A documentary about the border guard Karatsupu was repeatedly broadcast on Central Television. Our story is about this unique person.
Difficult childhood and early orphanhood Nikita
The future “thunderstorm of border violators” was born - as the Soviet press called it - on April 25, 1910 in a peasant family living in Little Russia in the village of Alekseevka. The childhood of the future border guard hero was not an easy one. Father died early, and the mother, left alone to raise three children, moved with them to the Turkestan city of Atbasar, hoping that a better life awaits them there. However, the reality was different - when Nikita was barely seven years old, she died, and he ended up in an orphanage.
Whatever the conditions in the orphanage, they always, and this is quite natural, limit the freedom of the child. Nikita did not want to put up with this and soon escaped from him, becoming a shepherd to the local bai. Here, constantly being among the dogs guarding the flocks, the future border guard Karatsup learned the first training skills, which were so useful to him in the future. His first pet, nicknamed Druzhok, surprised everyone with his ability, independently, without additional commands, to perform guard duties and protect herds from wolves.
Border Troops Direction
During the Civil War, Nikita was a liaison officer in a partisan detachment operating in their territory. When in 1932 it was time for him to become a soldier, and Nikita said in the military registration and enlistment office that he wanted to serve at the border, he was refused - he was too short. Only a reasonable argument came to the rescue - the more difficult it will be to notice the offender. Having appreciated the ingenuity and perseverance of the conscript, the military commissar sent Fedor to the border troops.
Having undergone the necessary training in such cases, the young border guard Nikita Karatsupa was sent to serve on the Manchu border, where at that time it was extremely turbulent. According to those years, only for the period 1931-1932, about fifteen thousand violators were detained in the Far Eastern sections of the border.
Cadet of the NKVD school
Here, experience gained in shepherd's life came in handy nowhere. Nikita was very skilled in reading the tracks of people and animals, and also knew how to find a common language with dogs. Soon, by order of the head of the outpost, a young, but very promising border guard Karatsup was sent to study at the NKVD district school, which trained the junior command staff and specialists in the field of official dog breeding.
In his memoirs, Nikita Fedorovich told how, having arrived to study with some delay, he did not receive, along with the rest of the cadets, a puppy intended for practical training and education classes. However, not bewildered, he found two young homeless mutts and in a few months made them excellent service dogs. He gave one of them to his fellow cadet, and the other, nicknamed Hindu, he kept for himself.
It is characteristic that all subsequent dogs of Karatsupa wore the same nickname, and appeared under it in many publications of the Soviet period. Only in the fifties, when friendly relations with India were established, the country's leadership for ethical reasons instructed in the publications to name the dog not Ingus, but Ingus.
First independent detentions
This dog of the border guard Karatsupy was listed in the documents as a guard dog of the "local domestic breed." However, under such a tricky name, an ordinary mongrel was hidden, but thanks to a significant admixture of the East European shepherd and the work that Nikita put into it, which became a real guard of the border. Already during the practice, the border guard Karatsup and his dog made their first detentions of violators.
During the time spent in the NKVD district school, Nikita not only received serious skills in dog training, but also improved his skills in shooting and hand-to-hand combat. Particular attention was paid to long-distance running. It was necessary to prepare your body so that if necessary for a long time to pursue the offender, moving at the same pace with the dog.
Successful internship and first glory
For the internship, Nikita was sent to one of the most difficult areas of the Far Eastern border, where the Verkhne-Blagoveshchensk outpost was located. In the early thirties, on the site guarded by her, attempts were regularly made to violate the state border by various kinds of smugglers who penetrated from the adjacent territory, and by espionage groups, the center of which was located in the Sichalyan city of Manchuria (present-day Heihe).
Here, the Karatsup border guard with the dog became real heroes after one day the Hindu, having taken the trail of a dangerous spy and chased him for a long time in a heavily trodden area, as a result of overtaking the intruder. After graduation and successful passing the exams, Nikita, together with his pet, was assigned to the Poltavka outpost of the Grodekov border detachment by distribution.
Border squad in a particularly responsible area
It is known that in our days this section of the border is considered especially tense, since natural conditions contribute to the crossing of the border in many respects. In the thirties, it was especially difficult there. It was the corridor through which numerous reconnaissance and sabotage groups, consisting of former White Guards, trained by Japanese instructors, tried to enter the territory of the Soviet Union. For the most part, these people were well versed in hand-to-hand combat, knew how to shoot accurately and, guided by the terrain, evade pursuit, noticing traces.
The statistics of his first three years of service show how the young border guard and his faithful dog fought with them. It is known from archival documents that during this period, the border guard of Karatsup spent five thousand hours in orders to protect the USSR state border, managed to detain more than one hundred and thirty violators and prevent the import of contraband goods for six hundred thousand rubles. These numbers speak for themselves.
Those who had a chance to serve in those years with Karatsupa talked about his truly phenomenal ability, chasing the offender, to run thirty or even fifty kilometers if necessary, and, since his colleagues did not keep up with him, engage in battle alone with several armed opponents. There is a known case when the border guard Karatsup and his Hindu after a long persecution managed to detain a group of nine armed drug couriers.
One versus nine
This episode should be discussed separately. He overtook violators in the dead of night. Having come close to them, but remaining invisible due to the darkness, Nikita Fedorovich loudly ordered the border guards who were supposedly near him to divide into two groups of four and go around the persecuted on both sides. Thus, he created the impression among the violators that a whole detachment of fighters was involved in the detention.
Dumbfounded by surprise and fear, the smugglers threw weapons to the ground, and on the orders of Karatsupa lined up in a row. Only on the way to the outpost, the moon peeking out from behind the clouds lit up the whole group, and the escort realized that they had let themselves be detained by a single border guard. One of them tried to use a hidden gun, but a well-trained Hindu immediately grabbed his hand.
Side bags
Another vivid episode from his official practice is also known, indicating that Karatsupa enjoyed fame and authority among the local population. The border guard once pursued a border violator who managed to break away from him along the way. To prevent him from leaving, Karatsupa stopped a truck heavily loaded with food and, before continuing the pursuit, asked the driver to unload the bags on the side of the road for greater speed.
Such an action was fraught with considerable risk - in those years, products were in short supply, expensive, and could almost certainly be stolen. It seems unbelievable, but their safety was ensured by a note written and attached to the bags by the hand of Karatsupa. In it, he warned possible kidnappers that the bags were left to him, and that in case of theft of the attacker, an inevitable and severe punishment awaits. As a result, none of the bags were lost.
Saved bridge
How high his professional level was, can be judged by one seemingly inconspicuous episode, which is described in memoirs written by Nikita Fedorovich himself. Once he managed to organize the detention of a group of saboteurs who prepared the explosion of a railway bridge and disguised themselves as fishermen for this purpose.
Checking their documents, which looked quite convincing in appearance, Karatsupa, an avid fisherman himself, noticed that they incorrectly put worms on hooks. This seemingly small detail allowed him to draw the right conclusion and save an important strategic object from the explosion.
Enemy Resident Miscalculation
One cannot but recall the events connected with the detention of a resident of Japanese intelligence in the Far East, Sergei Berezkin. This agent was elusive for a long time, thanks to the excellent training he had undergone in one of the foreign intelligence centers. In his work, he was a true professional, and for his capture, the NKVD leadership developed a complex operation, during which it was supposed to drive the spy into a pre-prepared ambush, where he was waiting for the border guard Karatsup, the dog Hindu and the cover soldiers.
The difficulty was that the resident had important information, and despite the ampoule sewn up in the collar with poison, he needed to be taken alive. This was possible due to the fact that at the decisive moment with his lightning-fast actions, Nikita Fedorovich did not allow the enemy to use either an assault rifle or an ampoule. As a result, the Soviet counterintelligence was able to use the data obtained from Berezkin during interrogations.
Professional intuition and help from friends
It is understandable that the diversion centers operating in the areas where the legendary border guard served, repeatedly tried to destroy him and began a real hunt against him. Karatsupa was wounded several times, but experience and professional intuition always allowed him to emerge victorious from these fights. Invaluable help was given to him by his loyal dog friends.
Over the years of service at the border, he had five of them, and not one of them was destined to live to old age. All of them were called Hindu, and all of them died, guarding the state border with their master. The scarecrow of the last of them, made at the request of Nikita Fedorovich himself, is now in the Central Frontier Museum of the FSB of Russia.
Self-study experience
In addition to performing his direct duties, Karatsupa devoted much time to summarizing the experience he accumulated, which he tried to pass on to young fighters. To this end, he regularly kept notes in which he detailed the methodology of self-training, which allowed him to develop his own abilities. And there was nothing to write about. It is known, for example, that through training Karatsup achieved the ability to distinguish more than two hundred and forty odors, which allowed him to accurately find the goods hidden by smugglers.
Deserved Glory
In March 1936, Nikita Fyodorovich Karatsupa, already famous throughout the country, was called to the capital, where at the meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR he was awarded the highest award at that time - the Order of the Red Banner. Since that time, his name has not left the pages of Soviet newspapers and magazines. Articles and stories are written about him, they put him as an example to the whole younger generation. Millions of boys dreamed of being like him and serving on the border just like the border guard of Karatsup, whose biography was known to everyone in those years.
His widespread fame and popularity among the people was largely facilitated by the series of articles of the Moscow journalist Yevgeny Ryabchikov, published in those years, from the press. By order of the commander V.K. Blucher, he was seconded to the outpost "Poltavka", where he served Nikolai Fedorovich.
For several weeks, the capital’s journalist joined him in a border guard outfit, and after that, having studied in detail the features of his hero’s service, he wrote a book that gained great popularity in those years. In it, the border guard Karatsup and his dog, photos of which did not leave the pages of newspapers and magazines, were presented in full and expressive.
New appointments
Nikita Fyodorovich spent most of his service in the Far East, but in 1944, when the territory of Belarus was liberated from the Nazis, he was sent there to restore the border service. The responsibilities of Karatsupa also included the organization of the fight against accomplices of the enemy, hiding in the forests and committing terrorist acts. And here, the experience gained at the border provided him invaluable assistance.
In this new place for him, Nikita Fedorovich served until 1957, when, by order of the commander of the border troops, he was seconded to North Vietnam. There, in a distant and exotic country, the Soviet border guard Karatsup helped organize border protection from scratch. The fact that subsequently the Vietnamese border guards gave a worthy rebuff to the numerous gangs who tried to enter the country from neighboring territories is undoubtedly his merit.
Belated but well-deserved reward
Colonel Karatsupa entered the reserve in 1961, having behind him one hundred and thirty-eight detentions of violators of the state border, one hundred and twenty-nine annihilated enemies who did not want to lay down their arms, and participation in one hundred and twenty combat clashes. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to him in June 1965. It was a belated, but well-deserved reward for a warrior who showed extraordinary courage and heroism in carrying out tasks related to the protection of the state border of the homeland.
A curious detail: in one of the conversations with his friend, the famous Soviet composer Nikita Bogoslovsky, the illustrious border guard noticed that the detentions of the violators that he had made were not completely objective in the Soviet press. In them, it was far from always frankly saying "which way they fled" - Karatsupa explained bitterly.
The border guard, a film about which became his monument
Despite the enormous risk that Nikita Fedorovich was exposed to over the years of service, he survived to old age and passed away in 1994. The ashes of the celebrated hero are now resting in the Troekurovsky cemetery of the capital. Already in our days, a documentary was shot and released on the screens about the border guard Karatsupu. It used a lot of exclusive material and unique film documents. He became one of the worthy monuments to this unique person.
The country with honor keeps the memory of its hero. In the Soviet period, his name was given to numerous schools, libraries and river vessels, and a bust was installed in the native village of Alekseyevka, Zaporizhzhya region. By order of the commander of the border troops of the country, Colonel Karatsup was forever included in the list of personnel of the Poltavka outpost, where he once served. The Grodekovsky border detachment also bears his name today, near the checkpoint of which a monument to N.F. Karatsupe and his dog.