There are such coincidences in history! Two battles in one place. Only the gap between them is 129 years.
At the crossroads
A very long time ago there was a village Solovievo. Now it belongs to the Kardymovsky district (this is the Smolensk region). According to 2014 data, only 292 people live in it. But the story of a sparsely populated village is extremely interesting. She survived a lot, which many things remind of. So, for almost three centuries, anchors abandoned by Lithuanians were stored in local houses of peasants. Men used them on the farm.
This place is historical. It is located at the intersection of land and waterways. The name of the village was in the XVIII century. There was such an engineer, Ivan Solovyov, who built the famous Smolenskaya road. The village was named after him.
French attack
When Napoleon moved to Russia in 1812, the Solovyov crossing played a great role. The Russian grenadiers, retreating, approached the village and then only realized that there was only one way out: to cross to the opposite bank of the Dnieper. But how? The existing ferry is so low-power that it can take only 30 soldiers.
And dispatches flew to Moscow. The Russian General Ferdinand Wincengerode, who led the "flying" cavalry units during this war, demanded the speedy construction of an additional crossing over the river. The case was entrusted to the nobleman
Ivan Glinka. He was famous for his special zeal. The general gave him a difficult task: in no more than two days to build a bridge. From the logs.
Glinka scored peasants from the area. And the work went. But it took a bridge to fix. This is where the anchors came in handy. The peasants dragged them a lot.
After a couple of days, the ferry across the Dnieper was ready. Two floating bridges opened the road to carts with the wounded, and carts with food, and even cavalry. And also to large crowds of people who fled from the provinces occupied by the French.
How the icon returned
In the records of Mikhail Barclay de Tolly, an outstanding Russian commander and hero of the war of 1812, it is said: the crossing at the village of Solovievo helped the soldiers capture many captured weapons. Suddenly appearing here, they started firing at this carriage. Napoleon’s soldiers were confused: where did the Russians so suddenly jump out of? They rushed forward, pushed each other, fell from a narrow bridge. Someone drowned. So the enemy lost hundreds of dead. And Russians captured a thousand people.
When Smolensk residents still fled from these places “from the Frenchman,” they brought out great value - the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. But first they went with her throughout the city, and prayers were served.
Three months later, the icon, which was with the Russian army in all battles, was returned to Smolensk.
Fast movement
Time has passed. And again the enemy, already different, encroached on our freedom. In 1941, capturing Belarus, the Germans charted the course: Smolensk region. July 13 went on a campaign. The next day, Semyon Tymoshenko, Marshal, ordered Lieutenant General Mikhail Lukin to defend Smolensk. He commanded the 16th Army. Interestingly, Lukin back in 1916, after graduating from the ensign school, commanded a company of the Fourth Grenadier Nesvizh Regiment named after Barclay de Tolly. He was experienced, military, brave. Both the “Lukin operative group” and the general himself, when the battle of Smolensk took place in 1941, showed exceptional courage and ingenuity. His troops distracted large forces of the Nazis from moving to Moscow.
However, on July 15, the Germans were able to enter the city. The Russian armies were surrounded. This is the 16th, 19th and 20th. Communication with the rear has become almost impossible to maintain. Only through forests, through the inhabitants of the village of Solovievo.
But already on July 17, German paratroopers landed 13 km from the village - in the city of Yartsevo. From here, an exit on the Smolensk-Moscow highway opened for them.
The Solovyov crossing was at that time the one and only point where the supply of parts of the army of our “western front” was going on. A lot depended on her. Both strategically and humanly. After all, here, on a cable ferry, all sick and wounded were taken out. That is why our soldiers took great care and guarded this path. For her possession were constant battles. The Nazis bombed from the air.
Colonel Alexander Lizyukov was charged with defending the crossing. The goal is not only to bring everything necessary for those who are fighting near Smolensk, but also, if necessary, to ensure the possibility of the withdrawal of soldiers.
Swim to the opposite shore
When the Fritzes appeared in the district, a stream of refugees from Smolensk and its environs rushed to the crossing. There has never been a stationary bridge here. And the ferry is too small, only two cars can fit. Yes, and pull it with a manual winch.
But everyone grabbed the only chance to escape. People rode and just ran ahead of one another. Sanitary carts with the wounded were moving, riding horses. Everyone was driven by fear. There were so many refugees at the crossing itself that nothing could be seen.
And the real hell began. From above - the Germans drop bombs, on the ground - they conduct artillery shelling of unarmed Smolensk residents. Sirens howl. The invaders included them on purpose. People cry mad with horror. Women cry, wounded cry. It was a real nightmare! A lot then died on this move - both civilian and military.
However, not a single day of Soloviev’s crossing (Smolensk) did not stop functioning. Sappers and soldiers constantly repaired her. Nearby, erected temporary bridges, at least some. With difficulty, but they threw cars loaded with ammunition, as well as fuel and all kinds of food, to the west coast. But the wounded with refugees, retreating units were transported to the east.
Everything was going to restore the permanently destructible moving. Boats, trees, rafts, just built from everything that comes to hand. However, this was not enough. People used to be (including wounded) rushed into the water and swam to the other side. Cattle were also sent.
Retreat
For this only channel of communication for which they fought every day. However, on July 27, the Germans managed to capture him.
Two days have passed. The leadership of the Western Front decides to withdraw troops surrounded by Germans through the same crossing - near Solovievo.
It was very difficult for everyone while walking here from Smolensk. The Germans attacked our units without stopping. The fighters did not have any shells left. They took the last Molotov cocktails and threw them into tanks. Many of them died. However, everything was done to deliver their medical battalions with hospitals to the crossing.
Once placed crippled comrades in a village school. A white flag with a large red cross was hung on its roof. Like, the wounded here, do not shoot. But the Nazis did not bother. They bombed the school. And again - the dead ...
A not-so-powerful crossing moaned under the wheels of thousands of cars, various carts and tractors carrying guns. Private soldiers with commanders followed it. And there are tens of thousands of them. And all this is under fire, which did not stop. Together with the army, the inhabitants also moved. They drove the cattle. Institutions were also evacuated.
Blood Dnepr
The Nazis did not stop, they shot. Not a single bullet flew past. After all, the accumulation of military and civilians was so dense that it was impossible to miss!
On the river, already scarlet from human blood, wounded soldiers floated. And the corpses. Frightened horses neighing. People were screaming. And the explosions still created such a heavy hum. The participants in this action later recalled: “If there is hell on earth, then this is the Solovyov crossing in the summer of the 41st!”
Once in one of these incredible days, German cars came close. Fritz, turning on the speakers, suggested that the Soviet soldiers simply surrender. And suddenly, at that very moment, our “Katyushas” “spoke”. Puffs of smoke and flame shot up above the enemy’s tanks.
Just two weeks
A little time passed - and the soldiers of General Konstantin Rokossovsky (namely, he was later assigned to command the Victory Parade in 1945 in Moscow) and still Colonel Lizyukov “returned” the crossing. On the morning of August 4, our soldiers went on the attack. And the next day she was in their hands.
Almost two weeks every day, under a hail of bullets and fragments, amid a frantic rumble from the explosions of shells, Lizyukov and his guys did the transfer of everything the Soviet army needed and did not let the enemy go. This is amazing! The vaunted Nazis over the same time occupied entire countries. And here, at a small village, fights were of incredible severity. The Solovyov ferry survived, withstood everything.
Exemption
A complete and long-awaited deliverance of the region’s residents from uninvited guests occurred in the 43rd year, at the end of September. Soviet troops launched a really powerful offensive under the code designation “Suvorov”.
And again in military reports the words "Solovyov's crossing" flashed. After all, the German command still considered it a key point.
But regiments from the 312nd Infantry Division were already breaking through to it (along the Old Smolensk Road) . Having defeated the fortification of the enemy near the village, the battalions thereby allowed their engineering units to build a permanent crossing.
According to various sources, here, at this nightingale crossing, our soldiers and officers died incredibly many - from 50 to 100 thousand. In the mass grave there are 895 nameless people.
Reinforced concrete handsome
Today you will not see any ferry here - neither the ferry, nor the same pontoon. A powerful iron bridge connected the banks of the Dnieper.
And next - the legendary Katyusha. The 1941 Solovyov ferry received seven of these rocket launchers at once.
Today, the memorial complex at this place appeared on the initiative of veterans of the Great Patriotic War and residents of the Kardymovsky region.
In the evening of July 18, 2015, the Eternal Flame was lit at the Nightingale Crossing. Everyone knows: during the war, its defense lasted two months. Such confrontation to the invaders is equivalent only to the defense of the fortress in Brest.
About 1.5 million rubles were allocated by the Smolensk region administration to put the Memorial in order, also to repair the Mass grave and to improve the Memory Field well.
A spark of the Eternal Flame arrived in Kardymovsky from the Alexander Garden of Moscow, from the grave of the Unknown Soldier, where it burns without extinguishing, this flame.
By the way, one historical event was taken as the basis of the coat of arms of the city of Kardymovo. It was repeated in two domestic wars. This is the exit through Solovyov crossing the Russian army and the Soviet.